Zero
by Nova Bucker
Summary: Meet 0,she's more than a bit crazy,but it's not her fault.Her true origin is a mystery.She stumbles thru the remains of the world trying to make sense of her mysterious past.But when evil rears its head,will her new bonds survive?Or shatter her instead?
1. Prologue

Zero

Disclaimer: I own nothing about 9, Shane Acker does.

Pairing/s: 9x7 (it's sorta canon, I guess…), if you have any more suggestions feel free, I'm all ears.

A/N: Okay, I've seen the short and I've seen the movie. I think the movie was a bit rushed don't you? I mean, one minute 5 and 9 are meeting, the next it's were off to rescue 2. And then it's all we defeated the cat monster yay! They rushed the plot, and the scene with the record player was a bit cheesy, I mean geez, 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow'? Great song but can't they do better than that? I've seen Tim Burton's other stuff, this was not some of his best work, I wouldn't go as far as to say that he butchered it, but watching that movie made me feel sad for such a good idea to be wasted on that. So Now I'm writing fanfiction for it! I just couldn't leave this alone, it just screamed, makeover on aisle one STAT! So here I was thinking, what difference would've a few OCs made? So here's the product! Enjoy! R&R! REVIEW PLZ!!!

**NOTE:** I think that if anyone noticed that the movie was set somewhere in the 80's due to the tech that was used. But for plot's sake, let's just say they had home computers back then (think very cumbersome takes a lot of power).

New Note: Hey ya'll, this is the proofread, and edited version. Sorry, I had to revise one or two tiny little details, thank you. I'm almost done writing the first chapter. TY, PEACE! ;D

Summary: AU. They were named in the order the scientist made them, not by when they were given life. Meet Zero, the first true Stitchpunk as she stumbles through the shattered remains of the world and her mind. She's forgetful, strong-willed, sly, and another thing, she seems to be more than just a bit crazy. What'll happen when she meets the rest of her fellow Stitchpunks? Will she remember why the Scientist created her before it's too late? Is she just a prequel? But then again, there's much more to her than meets the eye…

* * *

1, To Protect Us

2, To Inspire Us

3, To Define Us

4, To Teach Us

5, To Guide Us

6, To Lead Us

7, To Defend Us

8, To Guard Us

9, To Save Us

How about the others?

* * *

Prologue

The first time she had woken up, she had been greeted by a white haired man. Her optics studied the odd, lumbering yet lanky creature before her with interest.

"Hello Zero." The scientist smiled down at his little creation, she had been the first he had brought to life. She didn't struggle or do much of anything, she just stared inquisitively at him.

The newly dubbed Zero stared at her unfinished hands as she flexed them. Some of the fingers fell off, and she panicked, trying to grasp the copper fingers and put the back in their places only to drop them.

The scientist stopped her with his hand.

"It's alright, I'll fix it." Once he had fastened her hands and fingers in place, the small ragdoll had jumped around in exuberance. Soon she was wandering around the workshop, pulling at everything, yanking on anything that interested her.

Her appearance was simple, she had been made from the scraps of a black burlap bag. Her feet were more bird-like in appearance, three "toes" that ended in slightly sharp yet flatish endpoints. Her feet, near where the arch of a person's foot would be, was a mechanical version that was able to extend if she so chose. The metal of her ankles reached up halfway to her knees.

On her head, the Scientist had sewn on some sort of thick hair-like material, to mimic hair. It fell over her head in a long, messy 'do. Her fingers were a reminiscent of pincers as all ten of them probed and messed with everything within the workshop.

Zero had found a pretty piece of machinery to play with, and she began re-arranging wires. She found that machinery was quite interesting to play with. So for a couple of hours, she simply read books and played with things around the workshop.

Then some strange noises came from outside, so Zero ventured forth from a window, using a clothesline as a zip line to get down safely.

Suddenly, the world exploded into a brilliant, red light. The ground exploded right next to her and sent her flying, suddenly a sharp pain ran through her tiny body as another lumbering creature had stepped on her.

The weight lifted quickly, but the pain shooting through her sensory nerves was almost unbearable. Suddenly, she had been scooped up and was carried quickly.

She was unable to concentrate, her right leg had been melted by the heat of the blast. Her once long, black hair was burnt now half-burnt into a short messy hairdo on one side, and a slightly longer (but still short) burnt 'do on the other.

Though with her one open optic, she could see both of her crushed arms, her melted right leg and she could vaguely make out the scent of burnt burlap. She saw a distorted view through her right optic as she tried to focus her vision, and failed, realizing that the glass over her right optic had cracked, rendering the optic useless. She couldn't move her shoulders, so they were assumedly broken beyond repair as well.

Zero could only make out the blurred form of her Creator through her left optic, the right had closed in pain as her remaining vision began to swim.

She was barely conscious as she heard her Creator's voice…

"_Don't worry, I'm just going to put you to sleep for a while. When you wake up it will be all better…"_

Then Zero knew no more…

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

The second time Zero woke up, all was quiet, as if the world was still if not for but a moment. She looked around for the face of her Creator, only to find none.

She hopped off the worktable to notice her changes, her right optic had not been replaced, but repaired with new light green-tinted glass. Gone were her crushed limbs, and in their place two thinner more intricate looking metal hands, the fingers had more joints now and her fingers looked better for intricate work. The metal of her arms ended and the burlap started just below her elbows. Her skin was now fastened by two small, mismatched buttons of a faded color as well.

Some of the black burlap was now patched with two small, light tan cloth scraps, mostly situated on her right side.

Suddenly twin explosions rang through the air, and Zero noticed that this wasn't the Creator's workshop, it was someplace different.

Suddenly the Creator ran into the room, with large booming steps that frightened poor Zero.

She was scooped up suddenly and placed onto the worktable, then something like a glove was put on her arms, they resembled miniature bear claws. They hooked onto her arms, and fit like a glove, Zero looked at the Scientist fearfully.

His eyes, were full of fear and nervousness. Zero stared at him, then he spoke.

"Zero, there are others like you, but they are far from here." He said hurriedly, Zero cocked her head, more like her? The Creator made more? "You _must_ find them, and help them. They are out there, I am sending you prepared." He gestured towards the claw-like attachments on her arms.

Zero looked up at her Creator innocently, and nodded. Suddenly he turned her around and opened up a slot in the back of her head, inserted a small chip, he connected the wires in her head, then closed the slot quickly.

Information swelled within the young Stitchpunk's mind as the chip plugged into her head. It was like a sea of information, it was overwhelming. But somehow with that information, came an odd sense coursing through her metal skeleton.

A sense of purpose, like she had something, something to do…

She had a mission.

Then a loud noise, the sound of rapid gunfire rang out in the background, sadly, it was too close to the background. The Scientist nodded at Zero, then fled for safety that surely would not be found in that building as few minutes, maybe sooner, later.

Zero fled as well, but could not follow him quickly enough and was lost within the chaos.

Then everything seemed to happen so fast, there were more explosions and she saw the face of the enemies, giant walker robots blasting everything in sight.

There were more of her Creator's kind, running around, fleeing from the machines that blasted red.

Turning heel, Zero fled, but only into more chaos.

The machines were _everywhere_, there was simply no escaping them.

Zero jumped to one side as the Walker robot blasted the ground. A wave of heat passing, throwing her off her feet and the flying gravel nearly buried her.

Suddenly a sharp, blunt force slammed into her and send her flying into a wall. Something made a sparking noise and her mind felt, oddly empty as she fell through the grate…

And her world went black…

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

For a hours, Zero's unresponsive body had lain there, as explosions and chaos reigned outside. Her optics closed and silent and almost empty. Then, outside a large pole covered with electrical wire fell, and single, lone wire had gotten through the grate and touched the metal of Zero's arm.

If the wire had been completely live, it would have fried and melted her, but it had barely any electricity left. So the jolt ran through the ragdoll's body and jolted her awake, like a defibrillator.

Where was she, she looked around while swiveling her optics at her dark surroundings.

Using the wire she climbed up and out of the grate, she heard humans. Running and screaming in fear as giant Walkers with glowing red optics threw great blasts of red energy, burning the very air surrounding it.

Then even closer now than the least time, one second she saw the Walker, then a brilliant flash of red surrounded her along with a stinging, white-hot heat washing over her right side. Then she felt impact as she flew against the shambled remains of what was once a wall. And once again, her world had gone dark…

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Zero awoke to the sound of a small screaming voice. Her head felt, oddly empty. Everything was fuzzy, and she couldn't fully see through her right optic.

But none of those mattered as she homed in on the small voice crying for help.

She got to her feet, and broke into an unsteady run. Toward the singular, panicked voice, it was another one, like her.

A fellow Stitchpunk.

Trapped beneath burning debris.

Odd convulsions wracked his body, a hiccupping sound escaped his lips, it was sobbing.

Zero was on the scene pushing up against the debris trapping the other Stitchpunk. One of her claw-like finger attachments brushed his shoulder and he looked about wildly. It only took one look for Zero to know, his half-crushed and half-shattered optics were useless, he was blind.

He was made of a copper brown burlap bag with a patch of baby blue polka dotted cloth covering his left leg. His skin was fastened by a tight knot tied at his hip.

But all revelations aside, he was able to scramble out and away. Zero gripped his shoulders and he looked about wildly.

"Hello? Who are you? Where are-" He stopped speaking when Zero squeezed his shoulders comfortingly. It was another one, created by the Scientist. Zero vaguely wondered if she could speak as well, but that was a subject to ponder at a later date perhaps…

_Bzzt!_

There was a sharp buzzing noise within her head, like static or sparking electricity running through her brain- Cupcakes!

What was a cupcake?

What the- Brainy Bites and Noodle O's!

Suddenly the buzzing faded, as well as the random and very confusing thoughts pouring into her brain.

Then she noticed the black lettering on the chest of the dark, copper brown, ragdoll's stitching, 10.

"T-, t-, t-, t-, te-n? Te-n? Y-, y-, yo-, yo- u, you're t-, te-, te-n."

10 nodded vigorously and gripped her hand instinctively as another explosion rang through the air. Zero grasped his hand tightly and half-dragged him away. Suddenly, he stopped and attempted to head back.

"What- what're y- you doing?!" Zero stuttered in her newfound speech.

"11 and 12, they're in there!" He said suddenly, Zero stopped then hefted the blind Stitchpunk onto her back and broke into a dead run beneath the debris…

That was the longest, twenty-four hours of Zero's young life. She hadn't even hit a single day of age (awake anyways), and already her life was hectic and crazy.

She and 10 had found 11 and 12, tangled in wires.

Zero shifted her foot, the right and left toe (not including the middle one) shifted backwards and clacked together, like a pair of scissors. Zero began cutting the wires that held the two ragdolls hostage and soon they were free.

They ran like scared rabbits, until they finally hid within an old stone building. 10, 11, and 12 huddled together, Zero sat apart from them as studied them.

11 was tall and lanky, taller than herself, 10 and 11. His stitching had a more colorful ensemble, like he was made out of an old, slightly faded quilt. His optics shone fearfully and he was wringing his hands, his longer than normal spindly fingers clacking together apprehensively. Despite his mature appearance, his eyes shone with inexperience and a look of depressive pessimism, as if the world was going just toss a brick at him for existing or something.

12 was shorter than 11, she had messy red hair sewn onto her head and her optics shown more defiantly than 11's but her design was different. Her original material looked like old brown cloth, her left optic had cracked glass, but it still looked useable at least. She hugged herself, to keep herself from shaking Zero assumed. But despite her obvious fear for their lives, her optics seemed to say, 'bring it on' to everything around her.

"I'm Zero, you are those numbers right?" She pointed at their respective numbers.

11 nodded with a depressive sigh.

"Yes," 10 said dryly as he scratched at his useless optics. "thanks for helping us."

"Not a problem." Zero stood up and began removing his optics.

"Hey what're you doing?!" 12 asked, panicked.

"Well, the optics are no use, so why leave open hole in his head?" Zero held up a scrap of leather she had found on the floor. "I can fix him with this."

"Um, well…" 10's voice trailed off with uncertainty.

"I guess it makes sense," 11 mumbled in a subdued manner, "I mean what good are optics if they don't work? Uh, I mean, I don't mean to sound mean, but-" He began to babble, but thankfully Zero cut him off.

"Hey, it's not a bad thing, okay it is a bad thing, but- SHROOMS MAN! SHRRRROMOOO!!! SHROOM! UNICORNS AND DAISIES!" The buzzing sound had filled her head again, then faded once again as quickly as the spazz-out had begun.

11 and 12 stared at her oddly.

"Sorry, got hit in the head, I think I'll be a little weird until it goes away…" Zero apologized and returned to working on convincing 10 to allow her to remove the nonfunctional optics.

Once 10 had agreed, Zero had used her fingertips to unscrew the small screws and remove the optics. Then she used some spare string and a broken needle to put the thin leather patch over the top half of his face.

Once the patch job was done, she asked 11 and 12 if they were okay, they were uninjured. So it was time to move on. Zero bent over to pick up a wrench as a makeshift weapon, as she bent over her hair fell forward showing the empty slot in the back of her head.

12 then spoke curiously, "Why's there a hole in the back of your head, Zero?"

10 and 11 regarded Zero with curiosity, they wanted to know too.

Zero put a hand to the back of her head, nearer to the neck and found the slot. Hm, no wonder it was so breezy back there…

"I honestly don't know." Zero answered as she began to walk away, "hey, if you want to come with, you better hurry up, I won't wait for you." Suddenly 10 stumbled forward to grip the cloth of Zero's arm.

She steadied him.

11 followed meekly, while 12 marched right ahead of him.

'_The hole in my head?'_ Thought Zero as the small group walked on, _'why does it feel like I should remember something? Something or other?'_

Zero wracked her brains, for the next few minutes and came up blank.

What was it? It was as if something was nagging at the back of her mind, but she just couldn't seem to get at it. What was it?

And somewhere far away, in an empty tunnel, there lay a tiny, rounded chip with few broken wires sticking out. What it contained would remain a mystery…

Zero shrugged as she gave up guessing, _'oh well,'_ she thought, _'it probably wasn't important anyways.'_

So Zero, 10, 11, and 12 walked on, dodging through the shadows of the ruined buildings. They would sit out this war, whether these stupid robots wanted them to or not…

* * *

**A/N:** Clarification people, the whole movie had a steampunk theme, I won't break that. But the chip is NOT a microchip, it's like a very primitive, steampunk version. When I said computers on my first A/N, I meant those big cumbersome, computers that take up multiple rooms and a ton of power. Also, I just recently found out that there was a forum for this fandom, well, these are my OC's in this story. I'm not ripping anything off, so no-one better bug me about it. Notice that Zero is the only Stitchpunk's name that I will spell out, because 0, can often be mistaken for an O. Therefore I will spell her name out instead.

**OC Character Bios:**

**Name:** Zero

**Number/Location:** 0/on her left shoulder

**Gender:** Female

**Role:** -yet to be determined-

**Distinguishing Feature/s:** Half-melted right optic (eye) the glass of said eye is tinted light green. She has a bad right leg, and claw-like gloves that fasten over her arms (which are detachable and also can work as grappling hooks attached to thin but strong metal cables.)

**Appearance:** Originally made from a black burlap bag, she has an uneven amount of black hair, one side is way shorter than the other half. Her skin is fastened diagonally across her chest by two mismatched buttons. Her feet have three toes and the toes on the sides can shift backwards to form a pair of scissors (on her right leg only!!! The other leg is a cross between 1's and 2's though I think they're the same…).

**Personality:** Sometimes she's serious, sometimes she's a complete goof. Mostly has something to do with that empty slot in the back of her head… She's very adaptable to her surrounding environment, and often times (depending of what kind of mood swing she's in) she'll handle any situation head on. Often times she'll be the one within the line of fire, and she won't hesitate to take a hit for her fellow Stitchpunks, no matter how much they get on her nerves. She's also very stubborn, she won't let herself be stitched until her friends are completely fixed. She's the only Stitchpunk that has the tendency to cuss when she's angry. She's often very stubborn, strong-willed and she never gives up. She never abandons her fellow Stitchpunks and would gladly die for them if it was necessary.

------

**Name:** 10

**Number/Location:** 10/ on his chest

**Gender:** Male

**Role:** -yet to be determined- (To Hear Us)

**Distinguishing Feature/s:** No optics (blind), has a leather patch covering the part of his face where his eyes should be.

**Appearance:** (If you want to know go back and read it, I typed it once before I'm not typing it again.)

**Personality:** He is an optimist, if not slightly clingy to Zero. Looks up to her like an older sister, he often wanders away to explore his surroundings to memorize them. He is also very skilled with puzzles and cryptic messages. He has a bit of a 'tough guy' attitude toward everyone except Zero, despite his blindness and his clinginess to Zero. But his blindness has gifted him with an even deeper insight that everyone other than Zero has trouble understanding. He is a good listener and very patient,

-----

**Name:** 11

**Number/Location:** 11/on his back

**Gender:** Male

**Role:** Healer (To Heal Us)

**Distinguishing Feature/s:** He's tall and thin, and always wringing his hands together in a nervous habit.

**Appearance:** Tall, thin, (read it in the story, it's right up there!)

**Personality:** He's kind and caring but sadly submissive in nature. He often doesn't stand up for himself sometimes allowing himself be treated like a doormat. He is always wringing his hands together in an annoyingly nervous habit. He's jumpy and easily frightened, but will stand by his friends when the going gets tough. He's often pessimistic and is talented at mapping out every single worst (or remotely stinky) possible outcome of any t situation. He is also skilled at fixing internal damage and can't sew to save his life. He learned all his first aid skills from Zero and views her as his role model. Sadly, listening to him talk about how 'they're all gonna die' makes his fellow Stitchpunks both annoyed at him and 11's

-----

**Name:** 12

**Number/Location:** 12/on her back

**Gender:** Female

**Role:** Strategist (To Drive Us)

**Distinguishing Feature/s:** (I can't think right now…)

**Appearance:** (It's in the story, read it…)

**Personality:** Often times she is short-tempered and strong-willed, but her hard-headedness gets her into a lot of trouble most of the time. A lot of times, she ends up thinking out loud, and sometimes her thoughts can hurt others without meaning to. Also she has a tendency to walk all over 11, taking advantage of his submissive nature. But deep down, she cares deeply about her friends and is not afraid to put her life on the line to protect them. She respects Zero, but often butts heads with her and questions the older Stitchpunks' authority and knowledge. But she is also very good at coming up with strategies, but isn't very good at making them on the fly. She's very driven to protect her fellow Stitchpunks, but has the tendency to jump to conclusions prematurely.

-----

1, To Protect Us

2, To Inspire Us

3, To Define Us

4, To Teach Us

5, To Guide Us

6, To Lead Us

7, To Defend Us

8, To Guard Us

9, To Save Us

10, To Hear Us

11, To Heal Us

12, To Drive Us

**OOOOOO**

**PLEASE REVIEW! I wanna know what you all think! Don't worry canon characters come in within the next two chaps! REVIEW! Peace Out! (makes peace sign) ;D**


	2. Separation

Zero

Disclaimer: Shane Acker owns 9, not me (sad face) =(

Pairing/s: Still 9x7; anymore suggestions people?

A/N: Yep here's the first chapter. Enjoy, please review! Thank you! Peace! ;D

**NOTE:** I did draw a picture of Zero, but I don't have a scanner, at some point when I do scan it in, there will be a picture of what Zero looks like from Markala (me) on deviatart. But until then use your imaginations. (Note that the hands I draw look crappy, so when it's up there don't berate me about it)

**Another NOTE:** I don't know the technicalities behind the Stitchpunks, because in the movie and the short, they breathed. Even if they don't actually have lungs they breath, so who I am to change a wonderful thing? They will breath in this story, but they can't get poisoned for obvious reasons and stuff like that. Please enjoy. Peace! ;D

**Yet Another NOTE:** Okay, people I got a review that said that since Zero is the precursor to all the other Stitchpunks so she should be cruder and more simpler. Well in a way she is, it's just that the complicated stuff was more like a last minute shoddy upgrade, they may be useful but still not exactly super durable you know? Her hands are like a combo of 9's hands and 1's fingers (same the finger joints). Her right leg has the whole scissor toe upgrade thingie, not the left. Her left foot (the original leg, yes the right was replaced in case you didn't notice she'd had her original right leg melted in the prologue), does not have this ability. The fact that half of both arms work like grapplers does not mean like, holy crap is she modeled after spiderman? No! She does not have that much of a reach, plus, durability was sacrificed for reach, besides if she had too much then it would've been too bulky. More past and explanations will occur later in the story, but know this, Zero was not originally made with the same intention that the Scientist had when making the other Stitchpunks, what was that reason you ask? Well it's (dialogue omitted due to spoilers), so there! Now enjoy the story! Tell me if it's better than the movie… Plz? (makes puppy dog eyes)

**Yet More NOTE:** Also, I read somewhere (don't ask) that the 9 movie is sort of what would have happened if the Steampunk age had gone further than it did or something like that. So, technically this thing spans more than just the 80s think around mid 90s(albeit barren and empty) too.

* * *

Chapter 1: Separation

It had been some time but eventually the world grew silent around them, and by that time the group had gotten closer and knew each other better than anyone.

Zero was serious, and often times very stubborn about some things, but then she completely ruin the mood with her random spazz-moments. Though those spazz-moments were not harmful, they seemed to switch her mood and personality entirely. One minute she could be cold and stoic, the next she would be bubbly and hyper. Though once, she became violent and scary, that was only when 12's negligence had almost gotten 10 killed.

She also said the strangest things, words that her fellow Stitchpunks simply couldn't understand. Stuff like **(censored)** damnit! And other rude sounding words passed her lips more than often.

Nowadays, her original black color had faded quickly into a grayish brown as mud and explosions dyed her skin, afterwards, all her days in the sun had bleached most of the color out (A/N: Think a slightly darker shade of 7's skin).

With all the explosions and chaos around, it was only natural that all of them had sustained damages, rips, tears, and some bad breaks as well.

This mostly applied to Zero herself, her stubbornness in those particular situations never worked much in her favor, due to her tendency to refuse 11's patch up attempts. So far she had a lot, of patches on her right leg, she even had to replace most of the burlap on both legs already. Part of her torso had already been replaced with a striped cloth that was available at the time. Hell, even the burlap on her right arm had been mostly replaced with a patch of thin leather. Over a short amount of time she had lost the claw arm extension on her right arm, while the whole grappling arms thing still worked it was extremely difficult to grasp things with that particular arm. Her chief weapon was a stick with a can opener blade tied on one end and a scalpel on the other.

As 11 would say, he could and probably will be worse. He was probably the least damaged of the group, thanks to his overtly paranoid carefulness. The cloth over his knees were patched along with the upper half of his right arm. He also had a couple of long stitch marks along his waist and torso. Even after all the months they'd been dodging through chaos, he still would wring his hands together nervously.

12's recklessness is what got her, her patches. A smaller patch on her right knee, and a larger patch on the left, plus the fact that she once had to have the burlap on her entire front replaced when she's been caught on the bad side of an explosion. The only luck she had from that experience was the fact that she was far enough away from the explosion to not have two melted optics to show for it, as Zero constantly pointed out. Eventually she had made something like a bolo out of some scrap leather strips and small pebbles, as her chief weapon.

10 simply stuck to Zero like glue. His blindness giving him the inability to navigate for himself except by the small wooden stick he used to 'feel' the path in front of him. He was also sensitive to footsteps and vibrations in the ground. He was often the one warning them when something big was approaching them. Though this was rendered useless when it came to things traveling by air, he was also prone to panic attacks when Zero wasn't there, which never helped when Zero scouted up ahead…

"Well this is," 12 said, "dull…" Today they were hiding out in a small abandoned house, they had already raided the kitchen for scrap pieces to patch themselves up and now they just sat together, listening for the fading sounds of war outside.

None came, apart from distant noise.

They continued their constant trek at Zero's lead. Hiding within abandoned building and dodging the few robots still wandering around. Whatever had happened, it was dying or had died down.

Countless days later, the world around them had grown silent, eerily so. It was as if a thrashing sea had simply frozen in a single moment. At that point, Zero thought that she would've been relieved , but no, the silence had made her feel paranoid, always looking over her shoulder waiting for something to jump out.

So apart from the occasional explosion, nothing went amiss, usually anyways...

She readjusted her pack, an old floss container without a top, and viewed its contents with disdain. She had run out of string, that meant no patch ups and possible death. She stared at her companions through her one and a half functional optics, resting peacefully.

Who knew for how long?

_Clink._

Zero started, gripping her scalpel-can opener spear tightly with her copper hands.

_Clink._

There was that clinking noise again, apprehension screamed throughout Zero's frame as she took a step forward. The noise would awaken 10, 11 and 12 so they could get away. Zero knew that if she went back to them, whatever's out there, would find them.

11 and 12 were perfectly capable of running away, but 10…

Zero shook her head, trying to push the image of a broken 10 lying on the ground with pieces of his shattered frame littered along the ground, out of her mind.

'_I won't let that happen.'_ She thought determinedly. She ducked behind a broken crate lying in the ruined cobblestone street. She actually found herself short of breath as she felt a chill run down her copper frame spine.

'_Damn, behind me-'_ She spun round, and sure enough she was met by rows of sharp teeth.

**(A/N: No, it's not the cat monster!)**

"**HRRRROOOOAWWW!"** The sound made her frame shake, the beast stood on four, tall mechanical legs it's forelegs had mismatched claws and it head was pale white with sharp teeth.

Zero only stared into its two soulless, glowing red eyes for a millisecond before stabbing at one of them with her spear, cracking the glass, rendering the optic useless to the beast.

"**HHHRRRUUUUUGHRRROWWRR!" **The beast screamed out as the metal of the scalpel cut into the glass optic just before Zero yanked the spear out. It threw its long muzzle up and roared angrily.

Zero never let an opportunity go to waste, so she ran like hell.

She spent a better part of the day running, farther and farther from her friends.

'_12 and 11 better not let 10 get hurt or I'll kill them both.'_ Zero thought venomously, remembering all the times they had almost left 10 behind or let him get hurt, if not by accident.

She hoped to God that 10, 11, and 12 were safe. Though they were the biggest pains in the neck she'd ever met, they were her best friends, albeit the fact that she considered them all to be morons.

But that was just her opinion.

Zero hid within an old shop, on one of the back shelves still standing. She hid near the crumbling roof, where the rubble had formed a perfect escape route for her. So there she sat, gripping her spear anxiously.

_Clink._

_Clink._

_Clink, clink._

_Clink._

Zero's shoulders tensed as the dog-skull Monster came into view. She ducked behind a particularly large piece of rubble in hopes of not being seen. It was near now, Zero lay still, the ticker in her chest ticking ever so slowly despite the terror seething within her mind.

Slowly, the monster passed. Zero suddenly felt her ticker hammering inside her chest, despite all this, dodging through a warzone had schooled her on how to not show her emotions, if not for the fact that she had to be strong for her younger brethren. She had to stay strong, unmovable, undefeatable, set an example for them.

There was no room for weakness.

'_But then again, there are my- WINNIE DA POOH! WINNIE DA POOH!_' Zero's head began to spark over, the buzzing noise overwhelming her senses, then no matter how hard she'd tried to prevent it, she opened her mouth.

"TRALALALALA, Don't be SHY! KISS DA GIRL! MAWAH!"

Only one rational thought was able to cross the Stitchpunk's mind through her spazz-out, _'oh shit.'_

Suddenly, her entire frame had started jerking and twitching uncontrollably. Then she lost grip on the spear as she was suddenly lifted into the air as she heard a ripping noise as the teeth sank into her bleached burlap skin, pressuring her copper frame, dangerously close to breaking it.

Suddenly the world was spinning as the Beast tossed its head side to side, further tearing into her skin. Pain flooded her as the beast let loose its hold of her and she went flying, vaguely, she heard that buzzing noise again.

Then she lay very still, attempting to disinterest the Dog Monster. What the hell was a dog anyways? Zero wondered to herself, feeling the aftereffects of her spazz-out.

She didn't even know how long she had lain there, but eventually the Dog Monster had left, Zero just lay there for hours, just for good measure. ..

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

10 had never been more terrified, even more so than before he'd lost his eyes.

Zero was missing.

He had woken up to heavy, thudding vibrations in the ground, he was more sensitive to such things than the others. He tried to wake 12 and 11, but 12 waved him off, and 11 said something about living nightmares…

Soon they were all awakened by a huge roar that chilled their tickers and made their frames rattle.

It was then that 10 realized, Zero was missing.

'_She's battling the monster…'_ 10 thought suddenly as he gripped his sight stick and tapped out a path in front of him.

11 and 12 followed, 12 gripping her bolo weapon and 11, just being well, pessimistic whilst wringing his hands together.

Soon they came upon a ruined crate, and found Zero's pack.

"She never goes without this thing." 12 exclaimed as she hefted it onto her back and she looked at 11 worriedly.

"Maybe that monster," 11 said pessimistically, "whatever it is, killed her…" His voice cracked slightly, with either anger, sadness, or both.

10 remained silent.

"10?" 12 asked worriedly, tapping his shoulder gently, which was a pretty rare gesture, coming from 12 anyways. "Are you alright?"

"No." 10 whispered softly.

"No, what?" 11 muttered curiously.

"No," 10's voice cracked with emotion, "Zero's not dead," 10 curled his copper scoop fingers into fists and punched the air dramatically. "It'll take more than just one monster to take her down, an' don't you dare say otherwise!" He pointed to 11.

11 just sighed.

12 had a thoughtful look on her face, they needed a plan…

"Well," She started, "we gotta head in this direction, eventually we should find Zero. If not we can only hope…"

11 opened his mouth to say something.

"If it's about how we're all gonna die then I don't wanna hear it 11!" 12 snapped venomously at the taller Stitchpunk, who of course shrunk back and shut his mouth.

So the three began their trek into the wastes, with no-one helping them this time…

'_Oh who am I kidding?'_ Thought 12, _'as Zero always says, we're so screwed…'_

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Slowly, Zero sat up and observed the damage done to her body. Her frame may have been a little worse for wear but it was intact. But what really made her wrack in pain was all the rips and tears in her burlap/cloth skin.

She shuttered her optics a few times, then it hit her, it was dark.

Night had come, and she was all alone.

Easy lickings for whatever might come this way.

'_I hate it when Fate decides to throw you a crap party.'_ Zero thought bitterly, then, as an afterthought, she wondered, _'what the hell did that mean anyway?'_

It never helped, that she often didn't understand half the stuff she thought or said…

'_Everything is gloomy and depressing… Crap, now I sound like 11, I'm just going to shut up now...'_

Deciding that sitting around was a waste of time, Zero dragged herself to where she had dropped her spear and hoisted herself up using the weapon for support.

Then, slowly but surely, Zero continued her trek across the barren unforgiving landscape, dragging her pain ridden body forward for what felt like an eternity.

'_Put one foot,'_ she thought monotonously, _'in front of the other.'_ On the way she had scoured the piles of trash for something to repair herself with, plenty of cloth scraps, no string or needles.

Soon, Zero had pushed herself to her limit, she spied an empty building and dragged her exhausted form up the ruined stone steps. Then, finding a lone corner, on an old, forgotten dish towel, she felt her entire body collapse onto what felt like the most comfortable sleeping place ever to her.

She didn't even have the energy to spazz out and her entire world faded into a dark, peaceful oblivion…

OOOOOOOOOO

They had stopped for the night, hiding out once again in the remains of a ruined building.

11 was organizing his healing supplies within the dental floss case.

12 was scouring the building for healing supplies and weapons,

And seated on the ledge of a high window was a blind Stitchpunk wondering if his friend and guide was safe and sound. He wondered if-

_Clank._

What the-?

_Clank._

"**Grrrrreeeewwwrrr…"**

'_Oh no…'_ 10 realized that the sound was coming from behind him. He spun round and brought his stick down, and tried to call for help.

"Twe-!" He never finished his sentence and pain rushed through his ragdoll body and his ticker hammered fearfully in his chest. A set of large jaws clamped down on the blind Stitchpunks body, then something blunt smashed into the side of his head and he lost consciousness.

He didn't know what would happen to him, and this time, there was no Zero to rescue him…

And he feared _that_ much more than being blind…

* * *

**A/N:** Finally! I finally finished this chapter! It took forever to write! My feet have already gone numb people! Please appreciate the SEVEN FREAKING pages of blood, sweat and tears that I am currently offering to you all to read for your enjoyment okay? Please give me good feedback otherwise I won't have any will to write/update. I am writing the second chapter as we speak, but now I gotta go to sleep. I'm so tired, I'm posting this thing at practically 1 AM people! Thank you, more past and wonderful stuff like that is part of the plot, if I give it away then there's no point in reading the fanfic now is there? Please tell me what you all think, thank you, Peace OUT MAN! ;D


	3. Forgetting to Remember

Zero

Disclaimer: Shane Acker owns 9, me no ownie! (sniffles –sad face-)

Pairing/s: 7x9, hello I just said you could offer suggestions (though I only write het, just to say, so you won't waste your time and energy typing ;)

A/N: Yeah, here's chapter 2, I know I promised that the original 1 through 9 would show up within two chapters, but I kinda miscalculated, so it might (voice trails off uncertainly), look just play it by ear okay? I'm updating as best as I can, seeing as I still have both World History AND Spanish homework to still do, and an English paper(literary analysis) to write. I do this while procrastinating on my homework you know, I'm either: Writing fanfiction, reading fanfiction, playing Mabinogi, eating, sleeping or watching TV. That's the make-up of a ME-day, which I don't get a lot of so be glad because I feel glad and peaceful right now... Also I would also like to inform you that this is taking place slightly before the movie 'kay?

Oh, right, PLZ REVIEW!!! Peace OUT!!! ;D

* * *

Chapter 2: Forgetting to Remember

_It was like she was floating in a sea of darkness…_

_Bzzt._

_Her head buzzed and felt like it was sparking again._

_Tick, tick, tock._

_Her tickers' ticks seemed to echo and ring within the darkness signaling that she was alive, for now at least…_

"_Zero…-"_

'_Hm?' She thought lethargically. _

"_How do… keep… -ting at… Zero?"_

_A series of scratches and taps resounded, the voice was far away. Like a fading whisper on a breeze, then all was silent until she heard more._

_More tapping and scratching, more urgently than the last._

_Then pain assaulted her as it felt as if her own copper frame was being pulled apart. The scratching and tapping became more urgent, more panicked._

_But the sequences, they were familiar…_

_The pain continued for, who knew how long really, all Zero could think of was the pain she was experiencing and her herself wondering why everything felt so familiar…_

_Soon the pain ebbed away, and she found herself spiraling down, down, down into oblivion. She would have preferred the pain. As if she was falling, falling forever into an empty abyss…_

_Then something pierced though the choking darkness… _

"_Zero…" That voice, it sounded so familiar, "… have… mission… save… change… defy…"_

_Then she saw her Creator's face, smiling sadly at her._

_The image began to fade…_

"_Wait!" Zero rasped, "I don't," her hoarse, glitchy voice echoed into the darkness, "I d- d- d- don't understand!"_

_The fading image of the Scientist smiling sadly suddenly reached out a hand as if to catch her…_

_She reached out, but then her Creator's image faded from sight, leaving her to fall, to fall into eternal abyss that was the darkness beneath her…_

_And another hand reached for her another Stitchpunks',_

"_Take my hand!" Came an unfamiliar voice, faded, hardly there…_

_She reached out once again, only to grab at empty air…_

_And the darkness swallowed her._

_Zero screamed._

------

Zero jerked violently out of her exhaustion-induced slumber as she sat up too quickly, her ticker ticking wildly in her chest. The light of day pierced through the ruined walls and holes of the building, making her squint her optics at the harsh light.

Suddenly she was well aware of her injuries, as pain flooded her system once again. She attempted to groan, but no sound escaped her throat.

Her optics widened, she opened her mouth to say something, anything, anything at all.

_Srk, sprk, szzt, chk._

It was then that she undid the two buttons fastening the diagonal flap of her skin, despite the rips in the burlap.

Her green tinted optic widened and the pitiful sight greeted her.

The small mechanism inside her, connected to her throat, her voice box, it was gone…

'_No.'_ She thought with despair.

She couldn't communicate anymore…

Re-buttoning the flap, Zero then observed the damage done to her by the Dog monster. Her right leg was badly damaged, a long rip ran from her hip down her leg to where the burlap ended and the metal began, the copper leg was made visible by this.

Also, a long, diagonal rip ran from the top of her left shoulder down to the opposite hip, exposing her copper frame dangerously.

Zero sighed mentally, as of the fact that currently she was incapable of making any noise, she couldn't fix it alone, but unless she found 10, 11 or 12, she wasn't getting fixed anytime soon…

'_Once again, I effing hate my life…'_ She thought as she gripped her spear and hoisted herself onto her feet.

It was bad enough that before, her voice box and throat connection would severely glitch before, thus resulting in a terrible stutter that often made her difficult to understand at times.

First Zero searched for some thread and a needle. Lucky her, she did find what she was looking for.

But for obvious reasons, she could only stitch up her side, albeit not very well thanks to the lack of thread. But as for the other holes in her plus the rip exposing her metal spine, they lay open and all lose burlap was simply left to flap in the wind.

Leaving the building was an exhausting journey in itself, and seeing the piles of endless, barren wastes ahead of her made her feel more disheartened.

'_One foot in front of the other…'_ She thought again, and soon as the pain in her body progressed, it became a mantra, over and over and over again…

The day progressed into night as Zero trudged onward, furthering the damage to herself by pushing her body so hard. But she persevered throughout the entire night, against the cold, but harsh winds that blew across the barren landscape.

At some point, Zero started believing that she would die here. Completely alone, just another piece of junk to gather beneath another pile of junk and scraps.

'_I wonder how 10, 11 and 12 are doing,'_ she wondered as she half-stumbled forward, nearly tripping over a scrap piece of metal. Something rattled metallically against her copper frame, it was one of 10's optics. The ones broken beyond repair, but she had hope, at night when she couldn't sleep she'd fiddle with it thinking that maybe someday the blind Stitchpunk could at least see through one optic.

She huffed a silent scoff, there she goes again, asking for the impossible…

But it didn't hurt to dream, did it?

Zero muttered soundlessly as her heavy steps began to falter more and more often, but she would not rest, she wouldn't break from her grueling pace.

All she concentrated on was finding her friends again.

Little else mattered to Zero anymore anyways.

So she trudged on. Then she wondered to herself, _'where am I going again?'_

She thought hard, then remembered 10, 11 and 12?

Why couldn't she remember their faces?

Why was the memory of what their voices sounded like fading like some distant whisper?

'_Oh no,'_ the injured Stitchpunk thought in growing horror, _'it's happening again.'_

Whenever she spent more than a few days away from her friends, be it by accident or on purpose, she began to forget.

No matter how hard she tried not to, their faces would start to fade from her memory and their voices only a distant murmur. She would also start forgetting everything, once she'd almost forgotten her own name. It was as if the presence of her friends kept her memory from fading,

Zero had to find the others, fast, while she still had half her wits about her and she still knew her name…

'_Oh who am I kidding?'_ She thought despairingly, _'I'm so screwed.'_

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

He had been sent to scout the wastes again.

A well-worn Stitchpunk walked through the ruins carefully leaning on his cane as he searched through the piles of junk littering the ground before him.

He stared excitedly as he found some strange objects that held interest, and great potential for an invention. 2 also found some thread, so he took that with him as well.

He smiled wistfully as he gazed at the piles of junk that seemed to reach the sky above him.

_Clunk._

He looked down to see and odd shaped piece of metal, with small broken wires sticking out of it, on one side there was a small sheet of metal attached.

2 supposed that it must have been attached to something or other at some point, it was rather small and it fit perfectly into his hand if not smaller than that even.

Suddenly her heard a roar in the distance.

He turned and begun to head back, tucking the odd piece of machinery into the opening of his skin which he used to carry around some of his finds.

He unfolded his spear and put out his candle-hat, then made his way carefully towards the Cathedral. Soon, he realized that he may have gone further from the Stitchpunks' sanctuary than he'd thought.

He hurried along quicker, and turned the corner.

Only to come face to face with two red eyes, a glowing red optic and a red tinted light bulb.

The Cat Beast.

It growled menacingly and 2 readied the spear, the Cat Beast swiped its claws at him, but he rolled to the side.

Yet another struggle to survive, but old 2 had a feeling that he wouldn't be making it out of this one.

OOOOOOOOOOOO

Zero had repeated her memories over and over inside her head, the gears in her chest working overtime.

She couldn't forget, she just couldn't!

She hated it, her dependence on the others to remind her to stay grounded, even if they didn't know it.

11 was a number right?

She remembered an eyeless Stitchpunk, clinging to her arm. Talking her hearing receptors of whenever he felt it was too quiet.

She felt that she was forgetting something, weren't there two more? Or maybe she had just imagined it all?

Zero heaved a muted sigh, the thought that she may have forgotten someone was almost too much to bear.

10, that was his name, the name of the eyeless, blind Stitchpunk whom she remembered clinging to her arm many times while she led him around…

Like a little brother almost and- What was a brother?

'_Must not,'_ She thought tiredly as she stumbled again, _'forget, I don't wanna forget.'_

Then a loud clank rang out, the first noise she'd heard since she lost- lost who again? Darnit she was forgetting!

She hobbled forward, and surveyed the scene on the street, it was another Stitchpunk. His skin was fastened by a shoestring (what was a shoestring anyways she also wondered) and ended in a sort of knot at the top. He had this odd hat thing on his head and he was barely defending himself against the mechanical monstrosity. She didn't recognize him.

He had something like a spear only it wasn't double-bladed like Zero's. Then Zero caught sight of the Cat Beast. She would've gasped, but no voice box remember? That son of a retard Dog Beast machine had ended up ripping it out while it used Zero as a chew toy.

Zero suddenly felt the urge to do one of two things, the first option was to hobble away as fast as she could, but sadly, that just wasn't Zero's style.

She was still skeptical, but then she caught sight of something that made her gears feel red hot.

Caught on the Beast's teeth was a patch of leather, with strings sticking out of them, faded _blue_ strings.

Just like the one that covered 10's face.

That thing, took 10…

That MONSTER, took 10…

How dare that bastard?

Zero's shoulder hunched angrily as she gripped her spear tightly and she climbed up a pile of rubble.

She would fight the beast, she thought with stubborn determination as she pushed aside the thoughts of the aching pain in her body out of her head. Her memories she'd been forgetting, well some of them anyways, came flooding back into her brain as she remembered her blind friend. This bastard would _pay…_

But exhaustion had set in her body days ago, she already felt like a lead weight, but she felt so compelled to help.

'_Damn, I hate my life…'_

She raised her left arm, the one that still had her only remaining claw arm attachment and aimed.

2 had fallen back, and the Cat Beast raised its claws, ready to strike.

Suddenly her vision began to haze, and she wavered as her footing on the junk pile that she was standing on suddenly gave way.

She regained the footing, but lost the element of surprise as a chunk of scrap metal fell down, bounced off of another junk piece and it smacked into the Cat Beast, surprising it, causing its paws' downward swipe to pause for a brief moment at it swiveled its head towards the disturbance.

2 may have been a little physically slower that his fellow Stitchpunks, but he knew a miracle when he saw one. He rolled out of the way as the Cat Beast looked away for that brief moment however long it may last.

He looked up to see another Stitchpunk, whom he'd never seen before, perched up on a pile of junk and rubble, pointing an arm at the Beast.

Zero didn't waste a moment, she fired. Half her left arm shot out and clamped itself into the eye socket of the Cat Beast. And she took one hell of a leap of faith, literally, she jumped down while reeling her arm back with it still gripping the Cat Beast, reeling her forward towards the monster she assumed had hurt her friend, and was attacking a fellow Stitchpunk.

She stabbed her spear forward, using the can-opener side as she jabbed wildly. The Cat Beast thrashed its head around and swiped its claws at the half-crazed (not to mentioned still wounded) Stitchpunk currently hanging off of its head. Until finally, the claws caught hold of her exposed copper frame spine.

'_Oh, f-'_ Thought Zero as she was sent flying into a pile of very painful rock-rubble. Now don't think that during this time 2 was idol, it was just that this entire sequence of events had happened in barely seven seconds. He rushed the Cat Beast and smacked it with the blunt knife-tied spear, though it had little effect other than a shallow scratch.

2 couldn't believe the luck, another one! On today of all days, when they simply thought there to be nothing more than the Cat Beast prowling the wastes. But back to the matter at hand, he stood before the Cat Beast bravely.

And it roared.

Suddenly through the haze of pain, Zero found, peace. Like a happy place, but much different, it was like she just didn't effing care anymore whether she died or not. All the mattered was taking down that god forsaken son of a retard Cat Beast. She gripped her dropped spear and retracted her arm, and dragged herself up, then she smiled eerily.

She felt nothing, nothing but the urge to rush at the adversary with everything she had in one final blaze of glory, yes she would die, she realized with a muted bitter laugh.

But she didn't care anymore, she could hardly remembered anything anyways, so why not go out with a bang at least?

She fired her grappler arm again, and this time it caught onto one of the Cat Beast leg, and she pulled herself at an alarming speed towards it. Suddenly, she let go and fired it again, this time latching onto the back of the Cat Beast's skull head.

And she just stabbed, stabbed madly, angrily, soundlessly.

Soon, with embarrassed reluctance the Cat Beast had fled, finding the onslaught of the two Stitchpunks too much to take, for now anyways…

As it fled, Zero's arms was still latched on, and the wire stretched out . She was dragged and bounced for several feet before finally letting go and came to a tumbling halt, face first into the ground.

2 rushed to the new Stitchpunks' side, noticing the huge rip on her nearly bleached skin exposing the metal of her spine. The seams done on a rather large rip on her side was rather poorly done, and the many holes in her burlap skin seemed to speak for themselves. She also had a number on her left shoulder, 0.

'_Before 1?'_ 2 thought vaguely.

2 quickly hefted the new stranger onto his back, taking her spear as well. He was forced to wrap her arm extended through the cable around her multiple times due to the fact that she'd never retracted it.

Zero squirmed as she felt herself being picked up, she didn't like being cared for, or helped.

Suddenly she felt like something was missing, out of the corner of her green-tinted, half-melted right eye she spotted 10's optic, the one she'd been carrying around.

She literally threw herself off of 2's back and lunged for the fallen optic, she clutched it with her copper fingers tightly, she stared up at 2 untrustingly, but he was a fellow Stitchpunk so she guessed that he could be trustworthy…

He optics shuttered a few times as 2 spoke.

"It's alright, I won't hurt you..." The old inventor soothed, Zero stared then heard him say something , but she couldn't hear what.

His voice had faded and Zero lost consciousness…

OOOOOOOOOOOO

2 had carried the new, silent Stitchpunk back to the cathedral, to his and 5's workshop/repair room.

"Oh 2 you're back!" 5 quickly went silent at the sight of the broken Stitchpunk that 2 was carrying with him.

"Where'd you-?" 5 started as he gathered a couple of needles and thread and set them near the table (I know it's not really a table, you people know what I mean) as 2 placed the unconscious Stitchpunk onto the med table.

"In the wastes while scouting today." 2 replied to his apprentice quickly as they began to work, this newcomer's life depended on them working quickly, 2 knew that they would all speak later.

Suddenly 7 walked in, looking for 2 and caught sight of the damaged Stitchpunk on the table, another one of them?

She was angry enough that 1 kept sending 2 to scout, especially when they all knew that the old inventor was never in the best of shape. But another one of them, was almost, unbelievable really.

"Wha-" 7 started but 2 cut her off with a sharp look, the kind he made when he was in healer mode. It meant fixing now, questions later. Even 1 knew how to respect that, well, most of the time.

5, was just as surprised as 7 was, he was always worried when his mentor went off into the wastes, alone especially. It was no secret that 2 wasn't the best fighter, or in the best shape of his life. But he had come back with another one of them, one they hadn't met before. But what really caught him was the number printed onto her shoulder, 0.

Did that mean that she was older than all of them? 5 wondered as they worked on reconnecting some of her copper frame which had been torn loose, luckily nothing was broken.

He also found it odd that she clutched a non-operational optic with her strange claw-like arm, like it was a lifeline.

So many strange mysteries surrounded her, so many questions.

No answers, until halfway through her repairs, she woke up.

She blinked her optics, once, twice…

Then, she freaked out...

* * *

**A/N:** 9 pages! NINE darn freaking pages in 1 day! 9 pages of my blood, sweat, tears and sunburn! Appreciate it please! Review please! Tell me what ya'll think! I know evil cliffie! Please review, I'll update in four days or so, I'm not allowed on the computer on Mondays, Tuesdays or Wednesday s. So you'll have to wait for Thursday for me to start typing the next chap. REVIEW PLZ! Peace out! I love all you my wonderful readers and reviewers! Thank you! My feet are numb again from typing so much! REVIEW! PEACE OUT MAN! (makes peace sign) ;D


	4. Finding Voice Again

Zero

Disclaimer: I own nothing, except Zero, 10, 11 and 12(they're OC's you see).

A/N: Okay, I know I shouldn't be typing now but I am, deal with it. Thank you my wonderful reviewers! READ AND REVIEW PLZZZ! Peace OUT! (makes peace sign) ;D

**NOTE:** I said Zero's hands were made of copper, but hers is like a more tarnished color plus they are like claws, the look a lot like 2's sorry for the confusion, I forgot that 9's hands weren't claw-like.

* * *

Chapter 3: Finding Voice Again

'_Well that was unexpected,'_ Thought 2 as the Stitchpunk lying on the table awoke suddenly.

She blinked, once, twice…

Then she freaked out.

Kicking to scissors out of 2's hands she bashed into 5 in attempt to roll off the table, she landed in a crouch and at almost 7-like speed she was backed up against the wall brandishing the sewing scissors in front of her.

7 was surprised as well as 5, never in all the time they've been stuck under this Cathedral roof did she ever expect to find another one of them out there, much less someone older than the nerve-grating and domineering 1.

Especially one who was older than 1, she could just imagine that meeting. Lucky her, 2 appointed her to tell 1, soon she left the room. She could imagine this going oh so well…

Staring at the new Stitchpunk brandishing the scissors in front of them, 5 could see her unfocused optics, plus her right one, which seemed to be half-melted.

The glass was tinted a fading green, her optics shown defiantly, as if death was staring her in the face.

"We're friends." 2 said soothingly, holding out a hand to the half-panicked Stitchpunk.

"We won't hurt you." 5 said in that calm, gentle tone of voice.

The new Stitchpunk's optics suddenly came into focus, slowly, her shoulders relaxed and she stared at them further, as if her optics couldn't focus right.

Then she hobbled towards 2 and handed him the scissors, then sat on the table tiredly. They finished her repairs, though she remained silent, oddly catatonic.

"So, you're Zero?" 5's attempt at conversation made 2 smile for his apprentice.

Zero gave a nod then began to fiddle further with that optic, it was both kinda cute and creepy.

"Did that belong to someone else?" 5 was unable to stop himself from blurting, suddenly he was a bit afraid if the new Stitchpunk would get angry.

She just stared vacantly, and resumed playing with the detached optic.

All was silent for a few seconds, then Zero, forgetting that she couldn't speak, attempted to talk.

She had wanted to ask, 'what are your names?' but sadly, nothing but silence escaped her throat.

2 blinked, "you can't speak." It was a statement, not a question.

Zero heaved a muted sigh, while rolling her eyes, although what she really wanted to say was, 'no duh, Sherlock.'

5 was about to say something but didn't get to say, because then 1 walked in, in all his cape-ified glory.

'_Holy crap,'_ Thought Zero vacantly, _'what is he? The Pope?'_ She resisted the urge to snigger.

"So you found her in the wastes?" 1 said at 2 bitingly.

'_Gee, who threw a pipe bomb in his pants?'_ Thought Zero as she observed the bossy Stitchpunk interrogate 2 as if Zero wasn't even there.

"You, explain yourself." 1 snapped at Zero.

She stared at him vacantly, this guy may have been one of her kind, but he pissed her off.

Zero felt a little crazy today, so she decided to return the favor.

She forced this smile, a reminiscent of the smiles 10 would give to anything, this huge smile onto her face and waved enthusiastically, as if she didn't understand a word he'd said.

1 scowled, bristling, then 2 decided to put out the spark before a fire started.

"She can't speak." His kind voice interjected.

"Well then," 1 sniffed up tightly, "we'll just have to find a way to speak to her then," her turned away, then added snidely, "unless of course she is stupid."

8 snickered.

Then the two Stitchpunks left without a word more.

One thing crossed Zero's mind.

'_Oh no,'_ She clenched her metal fingers together, _'oh no he didn't.'_

She stood up with a really, really, reeeeeeally pissed look on her face. She made a very, rude hand gesture at the closed curtain, that seemed to confuse both 2 and 5, both whom didn't understand what it meant.

She rolled her eyes and cocked one of her sewn eyebrows at them, as if to say, 'what're you two lookin' at?'

So began her first day at the Cathedral…

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

She liked hanging out with well, everyone except 1 or 8.

She viewed 8 as a bully, and 1 as sort of a bully handler.

Though Zero enjoyed pissing 1 off. It was just too freaking easy, it was so nice to not have to act stronger than she really was, she got to explore and scout the wastes with 2 and 7. She liked watching 6 draw, and she like to watch 5 make stuff with 2.

The twins were, in a word, cute. Both the girls simply loved to read, too bad Zero couldn't speak, she wanted to tell them stuff too…

Then again, she still felt as if she'd forgotten something…

Someone…

Someones…

_Clink._

Today, she had gone to scout the wastes, alone, for the first time…

She also went much farther than she'd ever been while scouting with 7 or helping 2 look for more invention pieces and other supplies.

She knew that her fellow Stitchpunks viewed her as odd, and 1 just felt threatened by her…

But the dreams she'd had recently, they disturbed her, making her glad that she was unable to make noise.

"_Help me…"_

That voice…

"_Help me… I'm here…"_

Wait a minute-!

That was her voice… But, she was here, so how could?

'_That son of a retard stole my voice box!'_ Zero thought angrily, okay it was one thing for that stupid Dog Monster to have made her unable to speak, but now it was using her voice in attempt to lure the other Stitchpunks towards itself?!

In five words or less, she was pissed off.

Majorly.

Zero gripped her spear, and crept forward towards the sound, careful not to make a single noise.

Then she hid inside a can, and spotted the Dog Monster, playing her voice off like a broken record.

Then she leapt into action…

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

"5," 2 said as he arranged his newly found sewing supplies in the workroom. "Have you seen Zero?"

"No," The one-eyed Stitchpunk replied, "I thought she was with you or 7."

That sparked a small search throughout the entire Cathedral by the old inventor and 5.

"5, 2, what are you guys looking for?" 7 questioned as she came down from her watch on top of the Cathedral tower.

"Not a what," 2 sighed, "a who, have you seen Zero?"

7 shook her head, wondering where Zero could have gotten to. For the months since Zero's arrival, they knew her as often odd, one minute she would seem happy and childish, not unlike the twins 3 and 4, then the next she would be silent, reclusive and eerie.

The first time they'd seen that side of Zero had been several days after her arrival…

_Flashback…_

_Earlier, Zero was happily helping 2 fix an old toy car he'd brought back from the wastes. She was always ready to lend a hand, and was very good with instructions. Despite her supposed greater age than the old Inventor, she seemed much younger, almost like 3 or 4, getting into things, but often disobeying 1's orders._

_2 reprimanded her as such, well he tried to anyways, Zero just tuned him out._

_Zero at least had the decency to look like she was listening, though she never really stopped. She actually seemed to make it her own personal pastime, annoying the hell out of 1. The first time 1 had used 8 as a threat, 8 huffed menacingly._

_Zero huffed back, staring at the younger brute of a Stitchpunk, defiance flashing in her optics like wildfire._

"_Zero I need your help in the workshop with something," 2 cut in, attempting to minimize the collateral damage._

_Zero's defiance suddenly left as it was instantly replaced with a child-like joy. She immediately turned and ran for the workshop, ignoring 1's glare. 2 had simply shrugged his shoulders at 1 as if to say, 'oh well, what can you do really?'_

_While sorting through some junk, Zero began to read a piece of paper brought back by 7 from the wastes, it was for 3 and 4._

_She worked oddly slower after that._

_But after a while, Zero had wandered off into a different part of the Cathedral, away from the workshop, nowhere near the room that she was currently sharing with the rest of the girls, 7 and the twins._

_She wandered off without a trace._

_No-one saw her for the rest of the day…_

_The day after, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 were worried, where could Zero have gone?_

_1 waved it off and said that the useless Stitchpunk would show up eventually._

_2 went to the up to the tower, then saw Zero, perched up somewhere on the broken rooftop._

"_Come down from there, it's not stable!" He called out, Zero complied, but once she'd gotten down, she turned away before 2 could talk to her. _

_Then both him and 5 found her sitting in the workshop, facing the corner, hugging her knees with one arm and tapping and scratching the wood floor in quick successions and patterns._

_Almost like 3 and 4's way of communication, only with noise instead of lighted eyes. But she scratched and tapped much too quickly for 2 to even attempt to decipher._

"_Zero?" 5's voice was tentative._

_She didn't even twitch in response; she acted as if none of them were even there._

_She ignored 6's attempts to make her smile or something, anything really. She was totally non-responsive, she just scratched and tapped the floor next to her with her claw-like fingers(the one with the claw-arm attachment). At some point 1 had walked in, the fact that Zero had left the Cathedral had put him in a foul mood._

_He grabbed her shoulder and flung her around to face them all while he spoke harshly._

"_Now you think that stunt of yours was funny-?!?" He caught sight of her non-responsive, vacant stare. _

_Zero's tapping rate increased to an almost erratic rate, making 1 scowl._

"_Stop that infernal tapping already-!"_

_Suddenly the tapping and scratching stopped, her gaze suddenly turned into this, old, haggard, haunted look. Gone was her child-like innocence and curiosity, and in its place was a silent, eerie, almost traumatized aura that seemed to surround her like a thick blanket._

_She regarded them coldly at that moment, then the vacancy in her optics returned. Everyone from that day, even though 1 would never admit it, they agreed that they didn't like Zero like that, it made them feel sad._

_So the left her, though 2 stayed, as it was his workshop. 7 was sent out to scout the wastes, 5 was on lookout from the tower, 6 went to his room to draw something to make Zero smile, 1 went back to his throne, 8 went back to sharpening his knife._

_2 looked on her worriedly, she hadn't moved from her position seated on the floor yet, it must've been uncomfortable. She began tapping again, only slower this time, but 2 was unable to understand._

"_Are you alright?" 2 asked gently, putting his hand on her shoulder in a grandfatherly fashion._

_And so with that Zero stood up and helped the old inventor fix stuff and create things, and 5 joined in as soon as his tower shift was over._

_After a couple of days, Zero was once again happy and helpful, but she no longer did her tap-scratch thing. A couple weeks later, 7 found her hiding in the roof rafters in the same disposition as before, her haunted expression adorning her features._

_It was then that she tapped out something like messages again, not even 3 or 4 could understand her, 7 couldn't either, she often didn't get all of it. 5 usually went by hers and the Twins' expressions, so he didn't know what they she was saying either._

_It was then that 2 noticed the pattern, she would only do that scratch tapping thing when in her almost non-functional state of mind. When she'd just sit there and stare at a wall for hours on end without moving so much as an inch from her original seat placement._

_2 couldn't help but feel pity for the poor girl, he could see it on the haunted look in her optics, something bad happened, and she still remembered._

_It was times like that when 2 wondered how old Zero actually was compared to all of them. Her design was different, most of her parts cruder in some places and some others more complicated. Like a mismatched puzzle. But 2 couldn't seem to shake the nagging feeling that he had forgotten something…_

_End Flashback…_

Apart from her odd tendencies, she was a joy to be around, except for 1 or 8, though she seemed to enjoy annoying the heck out of 1 though. But she did have the tendency to wander off and explore, especially when scouting with 7.

2 sighed, and 5 clapped his hands together nervously, oh well they could only hope that Zero didn't get herself into too much trouble…

OOOOOOOOOOOOOO

At that very moment, Zero wasn't doing so well, the Dog Monster was totally kicking her butt dammit!

'_This sucks…'_ She thought as she dodged another swipe of its claws, she could tell, the thing was still sore about the whole, poked in the optic thing. She was pissed, no way was she gonna lose twice in a row!

Suddenly, she spotted something.

It was a stick, a freaking stick, of… Wait for it…

TNT, BABY!!!

2 had told her that those were better left untouched, but maybe it goes boom or something!

But she didn't have time to think about that, she just lit the match and threw the it in there, nothing happened, then-

**BOOM!!!**

The whole thing case exploded right next to the Dog Monster sending it flying into a pile of rubble, it didn't move, the force of the blast .

Zero rushed forward and poked it with the scalpel end of her spear.

The Monster was still.

Zero felt a genuine smile creep onto her ragdoll face as she located her voice box within the Monster's circuitry.

She moved far away, back to the Cathedral , and she found a private place outside to rewire her voice box to her throat. She adjusted the settings again, and spoke again for the first time in months…

"T- test- testing, testing one, two, three. Hey ya'll this is Zero clocking in." She smiled, even at the glitching of the voice. But who the hell cared? She had her voice back and that was all that mattered... Right?

Somewhere far away, a very, very, verrry angry mechanical Dog woke up, extremely pissed off…

But Zero was already safe near the Cathedral, far, far away…

But her memory was going fuzzy again, darnit she had to find the Cathedral right quick!

Where and what was a Cathedral again?

'_Oh shit.'_ She cussed mentally. She was forgetting again, she wished that this would stop happening, it was annoying as hell you know…

Then she spotted the Cathedral, well, it was a large building so she supposed that that was the Cathedral. She ran inside and felt her memory crash down into her head the minute she saw 2 and 5, she smiled.

"Where were you Zero?" 5 asked sounding like he was reprimanding a small child.

Zero smiled giddily, oh this would be fun…

Suddenly 1 walked in and started berating her.

"You went off into the wastes without permission, you could doom us all-!" Suddenly Zero decided to not reveal her newly regained voice.

Then she decided, nah, being the quiet, annoying girl was her favorite pastime, she decided to not speak, yet…

2 spoke to Zero as if speaking to a small child in his lovable, Grandfatherly way.

"You shouldn't wander out alone-" Zero raised an eyebrow, as if to say, 'do you practice what you preach old man?'

"Okay, okay," He waved his hands, "I rest my case, but at least tell someone where you're going next time."

Zero smiled, then undid the buttons that fastened her skin, and pulled out an odd key-like object.

She knew that it went to the toy car and placed the wind-up key into the slot then turned it, though it was difficult to turn 2 helped her, then they let it go and it zoomed off out of the workshop at top speed.

'_Oh snap.'_ Thought Zero as they ran after it, by the end of that day 1 wanted to confiscate it.

"-bring _that_ into our sanctuary?" It was 1's voice.

"It's harmless." 2 said with a hint of exasperation.

"Fine," 1 said, then he got this sly look on his face. "But punishment is in order."

2 sighed heavily, "fine, what do you want me to do?"

Then 5 became an unfortunate victim of circumstance walked in, seeing his mentor standing up to 1.

"You will be held responsible for this 5." 1 said jerkishly, 8 smirked as hoisted the one-eyed Stitchpunk roughly by the arm.

"Let's see-" 1 started then Zero observed 2 bow his head in submission and relinquish the toy car.

'_Must not-,'_ Zero's face twitched angrily, _'get angry… Must control… My temper…'_

Then 1 smiled, well, more like a smirk of victory as 8 carted the toy away to dispose of it. Okay, screw the damn vow of staying silent, Zero's mind screamed venomously as she clenched her fists to stop herself from _severely _hurting the caped Stitchpunk before her.

'_This bastard deserves a good telling off to!'_ Zero glared her now dangerously narrow optics.

She gripped a small piece of metal in attempt to restrain herself, face twitching violently as what felt similar to a spazz-out, but not the same at all. It made her feel violent, very, very, verrrry violent…

"What are you staring at?" 1 said condescendingly as Zero took a step and stood in front of him.

"_You-_" The voice was raspy, barely audible, and her lips hardly moved.

"Step aside." He said.

2 had this look, that said, 'don't drag it out.' But Zero ignored him.

"You…" Zero said, surprising the four Stitchpunks in the room, wasn't she not able to talk?

"You, are a grade A bastard you know that?!" Her voice rose slightly in an uneven, glitchy tone.

Something made a sparking noise in the back of her head, beneath a patch of cloth, that only 2 and 5 seemed to hear.

"Staying silent purposely I-"1 spat back bitingly, but was interrupted.

"Oh, puh- ple- please, that was probably the most bastardic move I've seen you pull thus far!"Zero put her hands on her hips and huffed angrily, "now I'm gonna leave the room before m-mah- muh- my t- t- t- temper gets the better of me."

Zero snatched a piece of unfamiliar machinery that was small enough to fit in her hand, and held it up to 2, "I'll give it back later 'kay?" Then she stormed out, but before leaving, she turned and added, "oh by the by, I'm only able to sp- spee- speak 'cause of the voice box I actually had to fight something for."

Then Zero left with very pissed off sniff and went through the curtain, leaving a surprised 5, a pissed off 1, a vacant 8, and a curious 2 in her wake.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOO

That night she sat in a secluded part of the Cathedral, funny how the other Stitchpunks hadn't found it yet. Then again, having a grappler for an arm was pretty useful at times, except when it jammed…

Those times had almost gotten her killed.

Though everything was fuzzy she fiddled with the scrap machinery, it had wires sticking out of it and a metal plate protecting one side.

Zero couldn't figure it out, why did it feel as if that thing was important somehow?

Soon, she had fallen asleep, but not into a peaceful slumber, for the first time since Zero had arrived at the Cathedral, she had stumbled once again into a world of horror…

* * *

**A/N:** Hey ya'll, guess what I decided to type anyway, while writing/typing my Literary Analysis which is due on Friday for English. It sucks but it's the only homework I have right now, man I ache. Stupid kids walking around at school who're sick. I think I'm getting sick, my legs, back, shoulders and my head all hurt like hell, I'm typing all hunched over right now you know… Anyways, I'm sorry if the characters seem OOC, it's just difficult to portray them since some jerks (coughHollywoodcough) cut off the character development scenes from the movie! It's so frustrating, tell me these things please:

**Is 2 OOC? If so what am I doing wrong?**

**Am I making 1, too 2-dimensional? Is he OOC? If so how can I fix it?**

**Am I writing 5 OOC? If so how do I fix it?**

Okay, that's it but also people, if you're wondering about 9, 10, 11, and 12's fates then don't worry, I'll get to that part as soon as I can. But in the meantime, OOOOOO EVIL CLIFFIE! I know exciting right? If you wonder about Zero's memory problem then that'll be explained later on. There's a perfectly good and realistic explanation for that, but not now. I gotta stop typing an go to bed, gah, I think I'm getting the flu, my back's really starting to hurt…


	5. Spur of Thought

Zero

Disclaimer: I own nothing except my OC's.

Pairing/s: 9x7, any others? Since no-one took that offer I'm choosing them myself.

A/N: Okay, sorry I took so long to update. I know how it feels to wait forever for someone to update, it sucks, but my muse took a vacation for the holidays, no matter how hard I tried I just couldn't write. I'll try to update a little more regularly, but I won't make any concrete promises 'kay? Please review, thank you and enjoy. Peace! ;)

* * *

Chapter 4: Spur of Thought

Zero had fallen into a routine, it usually involved helping both 2 and 5 with scavenging, or scouting with 7, though that always got them into trouble, and bugging the hell out of 1.

At the moment she was bored, so she decided to go looking for something to do.

Somehow she came upon 6's room, and looked at the scribbled drawings of the artistic stitchpunk with him scribbling away at a new one. He turned around and waved a small greeting towards the older stitchpunk.

Zero smiled in turn and asked him what he was drawing, 6 smiled and showed her a flower that he'd been drawing.

"It's pretty." Zero said as she scratched her chin, then an idea hit her. She snapped her fingers, well sort of, and she ran off, leaving a confuzzled artist in her wake.

OOOOOOOOOO

Zero had left the Cathedral, grabbing her double-bladed spear and taking off in a single direction with a single unknown intent.

Her optics scanned across the piles of junk and scrap metal critically, as she ran down the ruined streets of a once great city.

There it was! A giant paintbrush sign littered the ground in front of the skeletal remains of what was once an art supplies shop.

So she began her search, though no-one but Zero knew what she was searching for. She began to comb through the abandoned shelves…

OOOOOOOOOO

_Back at the Cathedral…_

2 was worried. It was sunset and he hadn't heard one argument, or to be more specific, 1 and Zero yelling their lungs out at each other. Which seemed to be Zero new favorite hobby lately.

5 wondered where Zero was too, he'd already been scavenging with 2 and 7, and for some reason they couldn't find Zero, because usually she would join them. Even her spear was missing, so he could only come to one conclusion, Zero had gone out into the emptiness.

Alone.

Mind you, 5 knew that Zero could fight, but often times he and 2 would catch her drifting off into her own little world at the most inconvenient times. Some days, 5 actually found it odd how different she was from 1, she was outgoing and adventurous, while 1 was, well, to be blunt, one grumpy, old pill.

The Twins hadn't seen Zero either.

Then 2 just had to ask 1 if he had seen Zero.

"Hmph, probably off somewhere in the emptiness, most likely gotten herself killed," 1 huffed bitterly, "good riddance, I say."

"1, I know you don't mean that, who would you argue with?" 2 poked fun at the older stitchpunk good-naturedly.

1 muttered grumpily.

Wisely, 2 left went back to his room and began to tinker around with some of the scavenged items lying around.

Well, they could only hope that Zero doesn't get herself into too much trouble.

OOOOOOOOOOOO

_Elsewhere…_

'_Score!'_ Thought Zero as she finally found what she'd been looking for.

Ink.

Colored ink to be exact.

'_6'll love this!' _Zero thought cheerily as she used small bits of string to tie the small bottle of green ink to her back. The bottle was heavier than it looked, _'it must be the ink.'_

_Clank._

"Oh w- wait, don't t- tell me." Zero muttered to herself as the sense of foreboding came upon her once again.

She turned around to face the face of the Dog Monster, it growled.

"Hola mi bajo amigo." Zero smirked as she sent a rude hand gesture the machine's way.

"MWAAAAHHRRRRR!!!" It tossed its head violently as it bared its teeth, Zero guessed that just like all machines it must've survived and done repairs to itself. The Dog Monster was back for revenge, and boy did he look mad.

Zero gripped her spear and sank into a very familiar battle stance and gave her adversary a cocky smirk.

Zero flashed the machine a 'bring it' sign.

The Dog Monster gave a roar, as it charged.

"Heh, let's dance, pero." Zero leapt through the air, dodging the Dog Monster's swinging bite, climbing onto its head…

OOOOOOOOOOO

_Somewhere Far Away…_

A lone stitchpunk lay in what used to be a ditch, curled in a fetal position. The blackness that surrounded him, no bothering him in the list.

Why should it bother him? He was blind anyway.

10 hugged his knees tighter to himself, gripping the heavy needle in his copper fingers. Maybe it wasn't such a hot idea, as Zero would've said if she were with him, to go looking for Zero alone.

He hated how 12 tried to take charge, sure the girl was great at chess and strategy, but she was horrible at applying anything to real life. 10 had never really realized how vulnerable and difficult it was to navigate through any place by himself until he'd actually tried it. 11 had attempted to comfort him, but unfortunately, 11's pessimism and nervous mutterings and utterances usually made one feel worse.

He had never noticed how over-bearing 12 could really be until Zero disappeared, without Zero to curb it, 12 was absolutely unbearable, she was thick-headed and wouldn't listen to anybody, she felt that she was always right and charged headfirst into everything. That last habit always ended up blowing up in all their faces.

They had found several stitchpunks wandering through the wastes as well, which was a huge surprise.

The first, her name was 13. Compared to 11 and 12, she was rather short, but oddly optimistic, the complete opposite of 11. Unfortunately, she would constantly spoke in pig Latin. She seemed to have been made from what looked like it used to be a referee's shirt and leather patches on her elbows, knees and shoulders. Her number was imprinted on her back in a small yet neat print, and she wore a faded pink scrap of cloth as a scarf and a faded pink ribbon pinned to the back of her head and bounced more often than a Mexican jumping bean, though only Zero knew what that was. She loved shiny things and the color pink, but she was okay. At first, she tried to cheer up 11, unfortunately, 11 just kept despairing out loud about how he must've done something in a past life to warrant the apparent death of Zero. After that 13 would give the depressed pessimist a warm hug. Her number was on her back, written upside down.

14 was a different story though, she was seven moods, annoyed, bored, angry, pissed, bitter, apathetic and mouth-frothy angry. She was slightly taller than 12, who looked as if she had been made of a referee's shirt like 13. She had a wore a red and white cloth scrap for a bandana over her head and two small buttons on the side of her head, those two buttons had a bunch of very short, multi-colored ribbons that reached slightly below her chin, which totally ruined the tough, scary image she looked like she was going for. Unfortunately somehow, her optics had an extremely warped peripheral vision, she constantly griped and complained about everything. Her number was located her back, sideways. She had no depth perception whatsoever and her right optic lens was cracked, at least so she said…

10 didn't even remember what it was like to see anymore…

Then there was 15, as it turns out they were made by some scientist's assistant(the same went for 13 and 14), but 15 never really spoke about it much. She was about the same height as 12, made of some tough, orange cloth, split down the middle and fastened with small, green cloth buttons to fasten it, along with dark green patches on her elbows and knees, with her number located on the side of her left elbow. She spoke funny, she almost never pronounced her r's. She was more inclined to joke about everything than to actually take anything seriously, and often seemed to tick 14 off about something other in the course of a single day, which usually ended in a fight, which now forced 11 to practice his non-existent stitching skills, which 16 was kind enough to help with.

Lastly, they had met 16, she was very nice. She stood at a fairly normal height, though she often seemed lost in thought, she was always encouraging everyone gently. She seemed to be the most mature out of the four, and she often seemed to the peacemaker/keeper between 14 and 15. She was made of a light brown burlap material and always had on a black jacket with sleeves that were too long for her arms and a mess of yarny brown hair done up in a loose ponytail on top of her head. 16 was the most thoughtful and sometimes let people treat her like a doormat, but she was pretty cool, even if she had some serious self-esteem issues…

Some days 10 still wondered what most of Zero's lingo meant.

They had been traveling through the wastes at an almost annoyingly slow pace, at least in 10's opinion that is.

But even so they hadn't seen even one sign of Zero. 11 was already mourning her, though the depressing poetry was starting to annoy all five of them.

Then 10 just couldn't take it anymore, so many days since Zero's disappearance, and he worried for her. So he did the only thing he could think of doing…

He went to look for her.

Alone.

'_Maker, I'm an idiot. If Zero were here, she'd clout me over the head and call me a dummy, and other cuss words…'_

There was a bang and a loud clanking noise…

Before 10 could even blink the pounding and vibrations beneath his feet grew louder, he turned and ran.

"RWWWOOORRRRRR!!!"

10 ran on, tripping and falling over ever obstacle that stood in his way, but still barely able to recover his stride.

_Crash!_

10 was literally bounced back, dazed.

He had crashed into a soup can. Out of breath…

And out of luck.

It was only a bare second, before the beast was upon him.

He tried to get up, only to feel a sharp pain in his head as it smacked roughly into a lone piece of debris that stuck out from one of the piles.

And as he lost consciousness, he thought, as Zero would've said in this kind of situation,

'_Oh fuck-monkeys…'_

* * *

**A/N:** Yeah okay, sorry I haven't updated in 4-ever. It took me five re-writes, FIVE, FREAKING re-writes! To get this done! This chapter has been a literal thorn in my side for the entirety of the holiday! Sorry for the cliffie, but I needed to give you guys the 411 about what was happening back with Zero's old crew, yes I added more OCs, you don't like OCs then shut up and find another fanfic to read cause I don't want to hear about how people don't like OCs. My life is complicated enough and both my muse and I feel both Emo and depressed for various reasons in my life. Yes Here are the last three OCs character profiles. Please review and if you've got flames don't send them here, I take constructive criticism only!

**NOTE About the Oc's:** Look I have three favorite numbers (not characters, just numbers that are sort of like lucky numbers to me) those numbers are 5, 15, and 17. I decided on 17, there are sixteen of them, plus Zero and now you have an explanation as to the existence of 10 through 15, if you still don't know, go back to the beginning of the chap and read it all over again! Please don't kill me!!!

-------

**Name:** 13

**Number/Location:** 13/on her back printed upside down

**Gender:** Female

**Role:** To Cheer Us, scout

**Distinguishing Feature/s:** A small stitched heart pattern on right shoulder

**Appearance:** Made from the same referee's shirt that 14 was made from. She's on the shortish side and wears a faded pink ribbon on the back of her head along with and equally faded pink scrap of cloth as a scarf. Her hands are like 9's and the same goes for her feet.

**Personality:** Optimistic and bright, 13 is the ultimate optimist. Surprisingly she is best friends/sister with 14, often curbing 14's violent tendencies and vengeful wrath. She is full of love and a practical never-ending fountain of forgiveness and always looks on the brighter side of things. She loves collecting things that are either one or both of two things, pink or shiny. She loves her friends and would be one of the first to risk life and limb to rescue them if they were in trouble. She wields two of those needle/pink things with the colored round thing on the end, like a pair of rapiers. She is easily distracted and usually gets into all kinds of trouble as 15's partner in crime.

-------

**Name:** 14

**Number/Location:** 14/on her back printed sideways

**Gender:** Female

**Role:** To Avenge Us, assassin/fighter/berserker

**Distinguishing Feature/s:** Warped peripheral vision(no depth perception), cracked right optic lens

**Appearance:** A sort of "biker girl" look, she was made from a referee's shirt that's color has started to fade away. She wears a small scrap of red cloth(that ironically had once been part of a human bandana) on her head. She fights with scrap metal with she has sharpened into claws that she had tied to her wrists for quick use. She has two pony-tail-like ribbon clusters on the sides of her though slightly back, sort of like hair. Her hands are the same as 9's but her feet are slightly thinner, adding to her agility.

**Personality:** Bitter, sarcastic and broody. She hates everyone and everything that has to do with machines and in particular she hates all things that slither. She complains and gripes at all hours of the day like it's a sport. She despises seeing her friends hurt and often insults everyone when she's worried, but despite all her faults, waaaaaayyy deep down she has a kind, caring side that she often denies even possessing, deep down she's afraid of losing those she cares about.

------

**Name:** 15

**Number/Location:** 15/her left elbow

**Gender:** Female

**Role:** To Remind Us, comic relief, technician

**Distinguishing Feature/s:** Speaks in a New York accent

**Appearance:** Made from an orange garden glove, with green patches on her elbows and knees.

**Personality:** 15 is the clown of the group, she wants to see her friends laugh and be happy. She often gets on everyone's nerves without intending to, but never stops smiling. She is always at odds with 14 and usually teams up with 13, she respects 16 but often says that 16 needs to "live a little". She will eventually wield a bunch of throwing weapons, which include small needles which can she can use for 'throwing spears'. Deep down she's insecure about herself and how others see her, but has the habit of masking her hurt with a smile and her jokes which often makes her more of a hindrance than a help. Despite all this she is the group geek/nerd along with 13, they give that saying "curiosity killed the cat" a whole new meaning.

------

**Name:** 16

**Number/Location:** 16/on her back

**Gender:** Female

**Role:** To Encourage Us, peacekeeper

**Distinguishing Feature/s:** None but her trademark too-big black jacket

**Appearance:** Made of light brown burlap and looks pretty plain except for her jacket.

**Personality:** She is the encouraging sisterly type, who is very patient. Despite being the youngest, she usually acts more mature and level-headed than 12, 14, and 15. She often ends up being the 'monkey in the middle' when 14 and 15 are fighting. She hates picking sides and usually ends up telling both of them that they're wrong. Unfortunately she sometimes goes off into her own little world and spaces out at the most inconvenient times, like in the middle of a conversation. She wields no weapon, has self-esteem issues and usually freezes up when she spots a mechanical beast but when push comes to shove she will jump into the thick of danger to make sure the rest of her fellow stitchpunks are safe. Her hobbies include daydreaming, reading and making origami.

**OOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

**A/N:** Okay that's all for now folks! All those damn re-writes and all those writers' blocks! I finally finished this chap! God it's so frustrating when you want to write but the words just won't flow! Anyways, please review! I would very much appreciate your input, hell if you want to give me ideas too, I'll consider them! Also I have a vote for ya'll!

**VOTE:**

**Should I create more monsters/machines & do you want a sentient villain(NOT THE B.R.A.I.N.!)?**

**(Dude, I just want you guys' opinions, please answer!)**


	6. Attempted Experiments

Zero

Disclaimer: I own nothing except my OCs.

Pairing/s: 9x7, I've decided on the pairings, feel free to guess what they are.

A/N: Yeah sorry peoples I take too long to update, I had to write this and edit this several times to please don't give me too much grief if it sucks okay? Review please, thank you. I also would like to say, don't you notice that the people who bother you tend to be nice to you right after you get hurt? At least sometimes? Well, that happened to me, I got hit in the eye by a flying ruler today. It hurt like hell and made me cry, and then those people have the nerve to just suddenly decided for constantly messing with me every school day. What the hell?! Where was the fucking apology when I wanted one? Or better yet why didn't they just leave me alone?! Bitches… Grumbles bitterly, anyways now that I'm done ranting, read, enjoy, and review! Peace out ;)

* * *

Chapter 5: Attempted Experiments

'_I soooo hate my life right now.'_ Thought Zero as she ran like hell with the equivalent of a hellhound practically nipping at her heels.

"**ROOOAAAWWWWARRG!!!**"

"Whoa!" Zero skidded to an abrupt stop, facing a ravine and very nearly falling into it. Zero turned back only to see a very, very pissed off Dog Monster gaining on her much too quickly for her liking.

'_Oh fuck monkeys…'_ She thought bitterly as she released her grappling arm at a bit of metal that stuck out on the other side of the ravine. There was no time to test it; so she took a leap of faith, careening into the ravine…

For a moment Zero felt giddy at the falling sensation and thrill that raced through her tiny being. The thrill that she felt like she could live for, again and again and again…

Then she looked down, at the inky black depths that seemed to go on forever, that swallowed up the earth and all who dared to cross…

The wire went taut, and she flew forward, smacking face-first into the side of the ravine. Somehow, she considered herself lucky the she didn't let go of the only thing separating her from imminent death.

Then she simply hung there suspending in mid-air, hanging by the wire…

Zero breathed a sigh of relief as the Dog Monster seemed to have thought that she had gone over the side…

Okay now came the hard part, getting back up, and on the other side…

Zero had begun to reel the wire back into the reel located inside her shoulder, she was about halfway up…

Then the reel jammed.

Zero's right optic shuttered oddly, in a stitchpunk equivalent of an eye twitch.

'_Fate…'_ She thought, _'go stick a burning piece of __**(censored)**__ up your __**(censored)**__.'_

When Zero tried again, she was reeled up about a foot at a time, to prevent jamming, then, a mere two feet from the top.

The reel had tangled.

'_All this for a jar of ink…' _Zero thought as she hung there trying to untangle the wire without making herself lose grip on the only thing that stopped her from falling to her death.

Then the high winds started blowing, causing Zero to release the tension of the wire causing her to drop several feet down before willing it to stop.

'_Screw. My... Life!'_

OOOOOOOO

_At the Cathedral…_

Zero had finally gotten out of that hole she had jumped in, literally. Then spent most of the day trying to find a way back to the Cathedral, she grew slightly fearful as an odd fuzziness feeling set in somewhere in the back of her mind.

Electrical buzzing…

"PUPPIES for sale! We've got spotted ones, we've got purebreds, baby we got 'em all!" Zero felt her body twitch a few times and one of her legs kick out as she spazzed. Somehow, she felt only glad that the others hadn't seen her spazz yet, it was embarrassing beyond all belief.

She passed by an old leather shoe. Zero looked thoughtful…

She felt like she should be remembering something…

Something important…

A small flicker of memory ran through her mind-

"Z- Zero!" It was 5 who came up out of seemingly nowhere, "you're back!"

"Uh, y- y- yeah?" Zero said as non-chalantly as possible, memory disappearing as quickly as it had come. "What's, s, up?"

"Um, nothing much," 5 said wringing his hands in what looked almost, familiar somehow…

"Okay then," Zero smile twitched as she felt an imminent spazz-out approaching, she held it back, then she turned to head towards 1's 'throne room' which in turn led to 6's room.

"I wouldn't go over there right now Zero," warned 5, "1's pretty mad."

"Oh, let him be mad." Zero said lightly, "he's always mad about something anyways, he'd berate the wind if he could so what difference does me going scavenging by myself make?"

5 went quiet at this.

"Oh gee, f- fi- 5, it's not like he'll murder me." Zero patted his shoulder comfortingly, her smile twitched again.

Zero hefted the ink bottle onto her back once again and made her way to the 'throne room'.

She noticed that 1 wasn't there and let out a silent sigh of relief then looked for 6, who was still scribbling away at the paper.

"H- Hey 6, look what I found for ya." Zero brandished the ink bottle enthusiastically.

6 stopped scribbling and inspected the bottle, then clapped his hands in joy. He hugged Zero with an expression of child-like joy, his pen-nib fingers leaving black, ink stains upon Zero's light grey burlap. He dipped his pen nib fingers into it and began to draw, he paused for a brief moment, and smiled as he hugged Zero.

When 6 went back to drawing, Zero backed up and moved to leave the whole room altogether, hmm maybe she wouldn't have to scream her lungs out today-

"And where have you been?" Came a condescending tone behind her, from the chair.

"W- why do y- y- you _care_?" Zero said as she rolled her optics.

"You could led the beasts back to us, that's why!" He sounded angrier, "you could h-"

"Get us all killed, yeah, alert me when you get some new material 'kay?" Zero yawned as she turned around to leave.

"You are being a danger to us all, you must adhere to the rules that keep us safe." 1 said.

"Oh g- get off your high horse already, you p- p- pompous jerk -erk." Zero retorted hotly.

"Will you cease that annoying stutter? It's a useless waste of breath." 1 smirked as Zero lost the look of cool indifference.

"Will you cease ordering others around like you know _everything _there is to know?" Zero shot back as she mimicked 1's condescending tone.

"You disrespectful-" 1 started.

"You're a grade-A bastard but you don't hear me saying it- Oh wait I just did." Zero cocked a sewn eyebrow and smiled cheekily.

1 growled angrily.

"Are you trying to look intimidating? Is that what the cheesy cape is for?" Zero matched 1's glare with a sly grin.

8 had wisely snuck back to his own room with his magnet again.

And 7 wondered what all the noise was about…

OOOOOOOOOOO

_3 minutes later…_

2 was sighed as he made his way towards the source of the noise.

"SCREW YOU!" Came Zero's voice.

"UNRULY GIRL!" 1 screamed back.

"YOU'RE INSUFFERABLE YA N- N- KNOW?!"

"YOU'RE WORSE THAN 7!"

"I'LL T- TAKE TH- THAT AS A COMPLI- PLI- PLIMENT!"

"IT WASN'T!"

"D- D- DO I LOOK LIKE I C- C- CARE?!"

"DO I?!"

"BASTARD!"

"POTTY-MOUTH!"

"THANK YOU!"

"THAT WASN"T A COMPLIMENT YOU THICK-HEADED-"

"IF- F- TH- THERE'S ANYONE HERE WHO'S THICK IN THE H- HEAD IT'S YOU!"

"AT LEAST I'M NOT CHILDISH!"

"SAYS THE GUY WHO D- D- DRESSES LIKE SUPERMAN W- ITH A POPE HAT!"

At this 1 was silent, of course the cultural reference and wit would be wasted on him, Zero didn't even know how she knew what superman was, though the Pope definition was a little fuzzy in her memory. The confusion seemed to have defused a possibly explosive situation.

2 sighed in relief, if he thought that 1 arguing with 7 was a dangerous situation, that was definitely before 1 and Zero met. Putting them together in a room or even within earshot of each other, was just asking for trouble.

"I knew the w- wit would be ut- u- utterly w- wa- wasted on ya…" Mumbled Zero.

"What was that?!" 1 spat back angrily.

2 sighed and decided to intervene before they both decided to throw ultimatums-

"What are you two arguing about now?" 7 interrupted.

They were both silent for a moment…

"I th- think I forgot ha- halfway through the screaming." Zero said absently. "Hey Gramps, do you remember what we were arguing about?"

If life were an anime, everyone would have face-faulted.

Then, as if she had forgotten that they were all there, she turned around and saw something shiny. Zero walked towards it and out of the room, right in the middle of the whole conversation, ignoring 1's mutterings about troublemakers and annoying females, which sparked another argument between himself and 7.

Zero spent god knows how much time just wandering the Cathedral, then decided to run for absolutely no reason. She crashed right into 5 a few minutes later.

"Sorry!' 5 apologized automatically.

"Nah, it's my fault anyhow." Zero said, then huffed as she held out her hand, "don't apologize for things that aren't your fault, 'kay?"

5 nodded quietly, and took Zero's hand and allowed her to help him up. They both headed back to 2's workshop/room thing… Whatever…

"You shouldn't rile 1 up so much." 5 said to Zero. "He really could make good on his word about punishment you know."

"What's he gonna do?" Zero shot back, "sic 8 on me?"

5 was silent.

"Ya know- FROSTED FLAKES! THEY'RE MORE THAN GOOD THEY'RE GRRRRRRR- REAT!" Zero's control over her, impeding spazz-out reached the limit for the day. She had literally leapt into the air, and jerkily crashed face-first into the floor.

5's expression was one of alarm as he knelt beside Zero, before she sat up quickly and-

BONK!

Crashed her head into his.

In less than a fraction of a second, they both lay sprawled out on the floor in a half-conscious daze. 5 literally saw stars, Zero just heard a ton of static.

"Sorry." Zero muttered apologetically as she rubbed her aching optics.

"It's alright," 5 paused, as if searching for the right way to word his newest query.

"Don't bother," Zero said with an almost sheepish grin, "I do that all the time, just when no-one's lookin'…"

"Why?" 5 blurted out. "S- sorry, that was r- r- rude."

"I know your- r- voice box ain't dam'ged, so stutter less, it's- s- not bec- bec- becomin'." Zero advised curtly, then she smiled, "but it's okay, I _don't _think it was rude, I s-s- say that it was a plausible question."

"Your voice box is damaged?" 5 asked worriedly.

"Nah, it's just old, crappy, and an all around piece of junk," just like the rest of me, Zero added mentally.

"You aren't that attached to it are you?" 5 asked with trepidation.

"On the contrary!" Zero jumped up and punched the air dramatically, "I- th- think that this thing is m- more trouble than it's worth, it's been broken, ripped out, and stolen!"

"Really?" 5 wondered who would be low enough to steal another doll's voice box. "By who?"

"Not a who, a what." Zero said seriously, "I had the damn thing ripped out by a Beast," Zero paused before adding, "but I have the feeling that it has happened before, so-"

"A beast?!"

"Uh, yeah, I had to light a Roman candle to get rid of the thing, and I was able to steal th- the v- voice box back." Zero answered lightheartedly clapping one of 5's shoulders.

Somewhere along the line, 5 just decided to not say a anything to that. He just didn't want to know…

But Zero smiled easily, an eerie difference when compared to Zero's catatonic episodes, which hadn't happened for a while, well it was hard to count the days when nothing much happened.

"What was that sparking noise? Are you hurt?" The inner healer in 5 took over momentarily.

"Oh it's nothing." Zero dismissed. "I do that all the time, my mind gets all fuzzy and I blurt out random phrases, nothing harmful."

"You sure? I'm sure that 2 and I could he-"

"No! I- I mean, well I'm fine, it's ab- absolutely okay!" Zero said defensively, she just wasn't comfortable with _anyone_ poking around her skull/cranium/head, whatever. Somehow she had a feeling that it might be one the things she'd forgotten…

She really needed to fix that…

Then Zero decided to go up into wherever she hung out by herself, 5 knew this, because usually Zero would start running before disappearing out of sight as fast as anything.

…

Then 5 decided to see where she was going, he just had a feeling that Zero wasn't telling him everything.

She had gone down many stairs, which were a real pain to climb, 5 almost fell several times. Zero didn't seem to notice 5 following her as she finally arrived at a small, unused nook in the basement.

5 peered inside.

Zero lifted her hair and proceeded to cut the strings to a patch, revealing some disconnected wires that stuck out awkwardly.

There was a large box-like thing in the middle of some other wires and clips, and some other odds and ends scattered on the floor.

She connected one of the clips to a tiny cluster of wires that stuck out of her head, and another to the box. She twisted the other wires coming from the back of her head to a small cartridge-like object that also had wires sticking out.

As she began wiring everything together, 5 couldn't help but feel that this wouldn't turn out well.

5 took a small step forward to get a better look, only to trip over a splinter, falling flat on his face with a thud and a groan of pain. Thus ruining his hiding spot.

Zero stared for a few seconds before asking, "5? What the h- hell are you doing here?"

"No, I believe the question is what are you doing to yourself?" Came another voice that was most definitely not 5's.

Zero's twitching optics swiveled and focused on the source of the voice, which was from behind 5.

It was 2.

Zero sighed, she had a feeling they wouldn't take any more excuses, there really was no getting out the hole, of explanation-giving she'd have to give, that she'd dug herself into.

'_Again, screw. My. Life…'_

* * *

**A/N:** Okay, I know I basically dropped off the face of the earth and I apologize! I'm failing 2 classes! 2 CLASSES! I'm really, really just plain- I don't know, and every time I look at what I write I think it looks like utter and complete crap! It drives me absolutely insane! I'm sorry for forcing you guys to read the crap I call writing. I've erased and re-written about half of this several times over and this is my final product. Whatever, sorry that I haven't updated in forever, for some reason my muses have been inspired to do nothing but draw fanarts as of late. Please review, I'm typing the next chapter as we speak, I'll try to have it up ASAIC. Thanks 'til next time! Peace.


	7. Remembering Sol

Zero

Disclaimer: I own nothing except my OCs, sniffles…

Pairing/s: 9x7, the rest you must guess.

A/N: Okay, here's chapter 6, FINALLY! I'm so infinitely sorry that I took forever, life, school work, and other stuff, sorry for taking so long. REVIEW PLZ!

* * *

Chapter 6: Remembering Sol

"Uhhhh…" Zero said while rubbing her head awkwardly.

2 came forward and took one of the clips away.

"H- Hey!" Zero stuttered as she made a grab for the clip, only to have it held just out of her reach.

"Are you _trying_ to hurt yourself?" 2 asked the female doll in a rare moment of reprimand.

"O' course not!" Zero made another grab for the clip, this time succeeding and dashed back to her project. "It's an experiment!"

"Experimenting with what exactly?" 5 questioned curiously.

"W- well," Zero stuttered absently, "I f- f- figure that my memory's a b- bit off –f –f, so maybe i- i- it just needs a k- kickstart."

She opened and closed the clips several times, and smile twitchily at them.

2 moved to stop Zero but she waved him off cheerfully, unwilling to be deterred from the restoration of her memories, or at least have a inkling of what she'd forgotten…

"Wait Ze-" 5 started, attempting to aid his mentor in stopping Zero from hurting herself.

"BONZAI!" Zero attached the clips to the wire.

It was downright electric.

OOOOOOO

_Zero's POV…_

_Flashback…_

_**FLASH!**_

"_Wake up little one." It was Master's voice, my creator._

_My optics opened to the sight of Master, and Sol my brother._

_He was made like me, originally a child's toy, brought to life by our caring Master._

_I shuttered my optics open and shut, open and shut..._

_I looked to Sol, as Master introduced us, 'Sol' was short for 'No Solution'. Sol was nice, he led me around Master's 'workshop' as Master called it._

_Then he showed me the outside, a garden… So many pretty looks!_

_Sol told me that they were colors…_

_So many pretty, beautiful things…_

_Sol was the second person I ever met, my Big brother…_

_I giggled._

_**FLASH!**_

_Sol was always a bit of a grumpy soul, yet always thinking about something._

_When I annoyed him too much and Sol didn't want to deal with me he'd just shove me or give me a well-placed kick to get his message across. _

_I didn't mind…_

_I knew that Sol had to always watch me and make sure that I didn't get into any trouble. It was probably very tiring for him._

_Sol always seemed to try to speak patiently to me, but sometimes I just really tried his patience, even without meaning to. Sol always said I was seven kinds of stupid, but I didn't mind really._

_As long as I had my Big Brother, and Master or course, it wouldn't really matter if I was stupid or not._

_But none the less, I tried, today I read a book called 'The Lorax', it was sad…_

_**FLASH!**_

_Master's bookcases were always filled with storybooks, he would read to Sol and I every night. Sol huffs and leaves after a few words though…_

_Sol said that we were going to look for newer storybooks today, again._

_Sol always had the oddest mood swings, when in a good mood, he was the most polite and kindest soul I'd ever met… Despite being the one of the only two people I knew…_

_But when Sol was in a bad mood…_

_I shivered at the thought, I loved my Big Brother but he was very scary when he got mad. He only got mad occasionally, and usually it was my fault for being stupid, so it wasn't really uncalled for…_

_I just wished that I wasn't as stupid as Sol always said I was, I think I annoy him too much._

_Sol always had me gathering things for him, cloth pieces, gears, wires… Some days I wondered what he was going to do with them, I asked, Master had been teaching me how to speak for several weeks now…_

_Things like radio, TV, movies… Master taught me lots…_

_Sol smiled slyly, "we're going to impress Master."_

_I felt my whole countenance brighten, "r- r- eally?"_

"_Of course," Sol assured me, "it will be absolutely grand, Zero."_

"_Okay Big brother," I chirped happily at the thought of our Master being impressed with our progress, "w- whatever ya say…" _

_Then I paused for a moment, as a thread of doubt formed within my mind._

"_But what if-" I started, only to be cut off by a sharp look from Sol._

"_I AM your big brother right?" He questioned playfully, his tone not matching his expression but still caring in his… Sol-ish way._

"_Yes." I intoned meekly._

"_Then listen to me when I say that everything will work out for us, not against," Sol paused dramatically and winked at me impishly, "promise."_

"_Okay Big Brother!" I hopped to it and helped Sol take the book he wanted from the shelf…_

_Sol always kept his promises…_

_**FLASH!**_

_Sol and I were trying to catch a bird today…_

_It was hard._

_The birds kept flying away and I almost fell out of the tree…_

_But Sol made an ingenious trap, using one of Master's bird feeders as bait, and within a few hours we had one._

_A large, red feathered thing with beady black eyes and a habit of pecking everything…_

_I smiled at Sol, he smiled too, before waving me off quickly, shooing me away with a list of things to gather for him…_

_I sprinted into action, Sol was never to be kept waiting…_

_**FLASH!**_

_We'd finally caught the bird, we had it in a small wicker cage that the Master had ceased using presumably a long time ago. _

_Sol had a sharp thing with him, he told me that we were making something to fly._

_He tied the bird down, so it wouldn't fly away. He said we were researching something called aerodynamic structures… Whatever those were…_

_But, he started poking the bird with the sharp thing, it tweeted alarmingly. _

_Sol had started with the wings, what was that red stuff…_

_I asked Sol why the bird was tweeting to much, he abandoned his work to hit me upside the head roughly and told me to be quiet._

_He returned to his work, but the tweeting grew increasingly alarming… Almost like…_

_Screaming._

_I didn't think, I simply rushed into action, Big Brother couldn't possibly _mean_ to cause the bird to hurt so much. _

"_Brother stop!"_

_I tackled Sol, knocking the sharp thing out of his hands, and used the sharp thing to cut at the threads we'd used to restrain the bird's feet. I kicked open the wicker cage door, and seeing the path to freedom, the bird dashed. _

_It dissappeared as it hopped off the open window, I breathed a sigh of relief as I turned to face the livid face of my Big Brother._

"_You MORON!" Sol snarled venomously, before taking me by surprise as he tackled me to the ground and stood over me, with his reclaimed sharp thing._

_He kicked my side, hard. _

"_You DO NOT question me," his optics narrowed visciously as he drove the blunt end of the sharp thing into the side of my head, "you worthless piece of trash!"_

_I'd never seen Big Brother so angry with me before, I was too surprised to fight back as he delivered vicious kicks to my back and drove the blunt end of the sharp thing into my head, my torso and my leg._

_Long after his anger had burned out, I let my head loll weakly to stare up at him…_

_Then he grabbed the front part of my burlap near my neck, forcing me to look at him._

"_Now you listen here, and you listen good," Sol said dangerously, "__**I'm**__ the oldest, __**I'm**__ the wisest, __**I'm **__the smartest, __**I**__ make the decisions, __**I**__ call the shots, not you. You will listen to me, and you __**will**__ obey me, and you will never, ever, __**ever**__ defy me do you understand?"_

"_But Big Brother," I wheezed out painfully, "we're not s'pposed to h'rt thin's…"_

"_We do as I say," Sol's voice suddenly took on a quiet tone, almost gentle, "you're just not smart enough yet, you don't understand things the way I do. Someday, maybe, but not today, okay?"_

_I nodded weakly._

'Okay_…'_

_**FLASH!**_

_I didn't mean to, really I didn't. But Sol was catching mice too, he would cut them to pieces, and use their bones and stuff…_

_It made me uncomfortable, but Sol said it was for the best…_

_Sol still kicked and shoved me, as per usual, like he always does, I don't really mind… Sol was scary when he was mad…_

_Sometimes though, when I was sure Sol wasn't watching, I let the animals go, let them scurry off or fly away to safety…_

_It made me nervous to say untrue things to Sol though…_

_**FLASH!**_

_I searched among a pile of junk that Sol had directed me to earlier today, I would find something useful for him…_

_**Sslllliiissshhh...**_

_What was that noise-?_

_I looked up-_

_**WHUMMP!**_

_Pain, everywhere, the snapping of my inner-framework as I was crushed under a great weight…_

_I heard chuckling…_

_I looked up, it was Sol… Sol would help me…_

"_S- Sollll…" I uttered weakly, my voice box giving out static._

_He dissappeared for a few moments, chuckling to himself. He was always laughing at my simpleness, Sol would dig me out._

_I heard something sliding along the shelftop, then I saw…_

_A huge object, it was making a rolling noise… What-?_

"_I told you that defying me was a bad idea," I heard Sol's voice again, "but you just wouldn't listen…"_

_More sliding, and scuffling noise as objects were moved around…_

"_Pity," I could almost hear the smile in Sol's voice, "I was rather getting to like you."_

_Something big, and black hurling down…_

"_Goodbye Zero."_

_Darkness, I knew no more…_

_End Flashback…_

* * *

**A/N:** Yeah, I know that I'm horrible, first I had writer's block, then I revised my plans. Then I had something called a mountain of homework, after I finished that I was too tired to write. Therefore I started playing Dragon Age Origins and Mabinogi 'til my eyes nearly popped out. Sorry, I'm trying to get back into the swing of things, on top of my unending social failure that is my school life. Anyways, please review, I hope I haven't... Oh who am I kidding? I took WAAAAAAAYYY too long… Please leave reviews, they stave off the impending depression… Tell me what you think, no flames, cause those are mean, 'kay?

Yeah, doesn't Sol (short for: No Solution) sound like a bipolar douchebag? Well, he is a bipolar douchebag, he'll show up again later… Won't tell you guys when, but he will… (Laughs knowingly)


End file.
